cover image This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World,

This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World,

Ernst Mayr. Belknap Press, $29.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-674-88468-7

The simplicity of its title belies the complexity of this book, which requires attentive reading even by professional biologists. Nonetheless, Mayr, emeritus professor of zoology at Harvard and a major contributor to contemporary evolutionary understanding, manages to condense the involved history of biological thought into this treatise. In this respect, the book should interest the general educated reader. In the more polemical passages, Mayr tries to explicate the perspective of a practicing biologist to philosophers of science. Mayr promotes a view of knowledge acquisition called evolutionary epistemology, which suggests that human understanding evolves like life itself, i.e. that while chance reigns supreme in the origination of ideas, those that survive are the ones that best serve their adherents over time. In the thought-provoking final chapters, Mayr enlarges upon an earlier statement: ""Our [success in] dealing with racial discrimination, crime, drug addiction, homelessness... will depend... on our understanding of their biological roots."" He promotes an ethic of ""evolutionary humanism"" and suggests that children be inculcated with the attitude that ""one should never do anything to one's environment... which would make life more difficult for future generations."" Extensive notes, bibliography, glossary, topic guide and index all contribute to the academic usefulness of the book. (Mar.)