Word: darwinism
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Perhaps the best insight into Rifkin's complex mind and motivations appears in his 1983 work Algeny, a book that presents a creationist-like view of Darwin and makes it clear that Rifkin disapproves of tampering with the genes of any of God's creatures--from viruses to man. In Algeny, Biologist Stephen Jay Gould charged in a 1985 review, Rifkin "uses every debater's trick in the book to mischaracterize and trivialize his opposition, and to place his own dubious claims in a rosy light." The book, Gould concludes, is "a cleverly constructed tract of anti-intellectual propaganda masquerading...
...errors. Clandestine meetings become necessary, with the following results: the painter, Timothy Lupton, falls in love with Maudie, while her mother decides that this dashed handsome young bohemian's attentions are directed at her. Added to this mix-up are cameo appearances by Victorian notables like Walter Pater, Charles Darwin, Anthony Trollope and Thomas Huxley. But beneath this sparkling surface roil undercurrents of genuine pain. Nettleship, a figure of fun in all his balding, pedantic outward manifestations, knows himself well enough to realize that he has botched his life and that the gloom he suffered when he could no longer...
...save Darwin and his adherents from journalists! Recently, Professor Stephen J. Gould had a talk at Hillel on the role of individuals in evolution. The note in [that] Saturday's edition of The Crimson (November 2) summarized the main topics fairly. The main problem, however, was the headline, "Gould Suggests Darwin Revisions", which was not only misleading in this particular case, but also may be connected somehow with the surprising unpopularity of Darwin's theory of evolution in certain lay circles. These circles are always eager to greet with applause any apparent weakness of this theory. It is regrettable, therefore...
...objections are twofold. First, the headline declares that Darwinism needs revision, which implies that it is wrong. Second, such a statement is attributed to Sephen J. Gould. In fact, neither implication is accurate. The theory of evolution by means of natural selection has been flourishing for the last two decades and at present is better off than at any time before. The triumphant march of Darwinism across the fields of biology and through the quagmires of social science has been advanced by, among others, Professor Gould himself. Gould's indefatigable efforts to present Darwin's views to the public...
...current theory of evolution is a broader concept than Darwinism and it is the former that may be subject to revisions. The mechanism of adaptive evolution, i.e. Darwinian natural selection, however does not need to be revised. May Darwin sleep quietly. Michael Jasienski, G1 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology