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Honest review · Character
Wonderful Life
by Stephen Jay Gould
The Burgess Shale and the contingency of history: rewind the tape and humans would not appear. Gould's grand argument, later disputed.
Read it if…
you want evolution as contingency.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want Conway Morris's rebuttal; read both.
Try instead: Full House →
Three things you will actually use
- History is contingent.
- Replay the tape differently.
- Humility about inevitability.
Do this first
Read the chapters on the reinterpretation.
Our verdict
Gould's Burgess Shale.
See the book →
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