The Spandrels Of San Marco And The Panglossian Paradigm

Evolution is an idea that is not yet completely comprehended. Charles Darwin, Father of Evolution, explained that two different species could share a common ancestor in his On the Origin of Species article; this theory was based on the idea of natural selection, which proposed the idea and understanding of the process of evolution to scientists. The idea of natural selection gave rise to adaptions from traits through other processes known as adaptationism. Adaptationists, including Stephen J. Gould and Richard Lewontin, believe most traits are optimal adaptations, and adaptationaism emphasize natural selection as having such power as to cause an evolutionary optimum. In the article, The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: a Critique of the adaptationist programme, Gould and Lewontin proposed that developmental and phyletic constraints play a major role in explaining the history of evolution. The authors compared adaptationist interpretations to the complex designs in the spandrels, which

This programme views species as a group of separate parts and each of these parts have been enhanced by natural selection. The followers of adaptationist programme create a unique adaptation story to explain the part’s origin which Gould and Lewontin mentions as “just-so stories” in the article. In the beginning of the article, the authors demonstrate their understanding of adaptationist programme and explain how the supporters view the growth of the diversity of life. And the authors end the article by giving an alternative approach to understanding how life has “developed by using phyletic and developmental constraints as the center of analysis rather than adaption,” (Barnes). And finally, Gould and Lewontin conclude the paper by underlining that the adaptationist’s opinion is not well matched with the idea of an integrative