I Hardly Recognize What I Do Well.

Can I Pay Any Higher Tribute To A Man [george Gaylord Simpson] Than To State That His Work Both Established A Profession And Sowed The Seeds For Its Own Revision? If Simpson Had Reached Final Truth, He Either Would Have Been A Priest Or Would Have Chosen A Dull Profession. The History Of Life Cannot Be A Dull Profession.

A Complete Theory Of Evolution Must Acknowledge A Balance Between "external" Forces Of Environment Imposing Selection For Local Adaptation And "internal" Forces Representing Constraints Of Inheritance And Development. Vavilov Placed Too Much Emphasis On Internal Constraints And Downgraded The Power Of Selection. But Western Darwinians Have Erred Equally In Practically Ignoring (while Acknowledging In Theory) The Limits Placed On Selection By Structure And Development What Vavilov And The Older Biologists Would Have Called "laws Of Form.

I Would Rather Label The Whole Enterprise Of Setting A Biological Value Upon Groups For What It Is: Irrelevant, Intellectually Unsound, And Highly Injurious.

I Contend That The Continued Racial Classification Of Homo Sapiens Represents An Outmoded Approach To The General Problem Of Differentiation Within A Species. In Other Words, I Reject A Racial Classification Of Humans For The Same Reasons That I Prefer Not To Divide Into Subspecies The Prodigiously Variable West Indian Land Snails That Form The Subject Of My Own Research.

Look In The Mirror, And Don't Be Tempted To Equate Transient Domination With Either Intrinsic Superiority Or Prospects For Extended Survival.