1012 THE STRUCTURE OF EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
geological time. Nonetheless, we believe that a general theory of punctuational
change is broadly, though by no means exclusively, valid throughout biology" (Gould
and Eldredge, 1977, p. 145). In 1982, in the midst of illusory stage 2, when I was
supposedly touting macromutation as the cause of punctuated equilibrium in order to
dethrone Darwinism, I explicitly drew the same distinction in order to separate the
phenomena, while noting an interesting similarity in abstract geometric style of
change across scales (Gould, 1982c, p. 90):
These legitimate styles of macromutation are related to punctuated
equilibrium only insofar as both represent different and unconnected examples
of a general style of thinking that I have called punctuational (as opposed to
gradualist or continuationist thought). I take it that no one would deny the
constraining impact of gradualistic biases upon evolutionary theorizing.
Punctuational thinking focusses upon the stability of structure, the difficulty
of its transformation, and the idea of change as a transition between stable
states. Evolutionists are now discussing punctuational theories at several
levels: for morphological shifts (legitimate macromutation), speciation
(various theories for rapid attainment of reproductive isolation), and general
morphological pattern in geological time (punctuated equilibrium). These are
not logically interrelated, but manifestations of a style of thought that I regard
as promising and, at least, expansive in its challenge to conventional ideas.
Any manifestation may be true or false, or of high or low relative frequency,
without affecting the prospects of any other. I do commend the general style
of thought (now becoming popular in other disciplines as well) as a fruitful
source for hypotheses.However, when I turn to factors that must be laid at our critics' doorstep, I can
compile a longer and more serious list, including attitudes and practices that do
compromise the ideals of scholarship. (Remember that I deal, in this section, only
with personal and nonscientific critiques of punctuated equilibrium. We have also
been properly subjected to very sharp, entirely appropriate, and fully welcomed
criticism of a technical and scientific nature—and the theory of punctuated
equilibrium has only been altered and improved thereby. I have discussed these
legitimate criticisms in Section IV of this chapter.)
- THE EMOTIONAL SOURCE OF JEALOUSY. Given the vehemence of many
deprecations, combined with a weakness or absence of logical or scientific content, I
must conclude that the primary motivating factor lies in simple jealousy—that most
distressing, yet most quintessentially human, of all destructive emotions ("as cruel as
the grave" according to the Song of Songs; "the jaundice of the soul," in Dryden's
metaphor; and, in the most memorable definition of all, Shakespeare's words of
warning to Othello: "It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds
on").
Punctuated equilibrium has generated a large and public volume of commentary.
I am confident that genuine interest and content has generated the