OT: best book in years

[John J. Lee]

Chad Netzer <cnetzer at sonic.net> writes:

> On Sun, 2003-09-07 at 01:06, Alex Martelli wrote:
> 
> > Me, I'd recommend "Dawkins vs. Gould: Survival of the Fittest",
> > by Kim Sterelny.
> 
> Thanks, I had just been wondering if there was a book on this subject,
> after a recent discussion about this topic with my girlfriend.
[...]

That "debate" is so frequently depressing in its astoundingly low
quality that I couldn't bring myself to so much as pick up the book.
Full of straw men, certainly from a bunch of people who think or claim
they've read Dawkins (& co.) but haven't, but perhaps on the other
side too.  They round and round in tiny circles, like some silly
USENET thread.  Mind you, IIRC the "astounding" parts I remember were
mostly from Steven Rose rather than Gould (it's quite a while since I
read all this stuff).


John