Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

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12 Summary: Appreciation of Ernst Mayr’s Science 379 the world totaling 17 honorary PhD degrees, 35 medals, and 52 honorary society memberships. Yet he was most proud of having the library at the Museum of Comparative Zoology named after him, as he considered the collected knowledge stored in libraries the most important part of human culture. Ernst Mayr himself classified a scientist’s achievements which may lie in several different areas: “As an innovator (new discoveries, new theories, new concepts), as a synthesizer (bringing together scattered information, sharing relationships and interactions, particularly between different disciplines, like genetics and taxonomy), as a disseminator (presenting specialized information and theory in such a way that it becomes accessible to non-specialists [popularizer is a misleading term]), as a compiler or cataloguer,asananalyst (dissecting complex issues, clarifying matters by suggesting new terminologies, etc.), and in other ways” (see Provine 2005). In the sense of this classification, Mayr was a compiler or cataloguer in much of his ornithological work at the American Museum which formed the empirical basisforhislatertheoreticalstudies.Hepublishednumerousarticlesandbookson the birds of New Guinea, the Philippines and the islands of the SW Pacific based on the biological species concept. He never considered this taxonomic work as an end in itself but always as a means to go beyond it. Since his student days he pursued a synthesis of systematics, evolution and genetics, as documented by his letter to E. Stresemann of May 1924, when he was 19 years old (p. 27), by his discussions in 1927 (p. 45) and his letter to Th. Dobzhansky in 1935 (p. 185). His synthesis of systematics, evolutionary biology, natural history and population genetics in his book, Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942e) was a major achievement followed, in 1963 and 1970, by his magisterial syntheses of evolutionary biology (Animal Species and Evolution; Populations, Species, and Evolution). Mayr made “the species problem” a central concern of evolutionary biology. Other major syntheses were his textbook, the Principles of Systematic Zoology (1969b) as well as his comprehensive works on the history of biology (1982d) and on the philosophy of biology (1997b, 2004a). Mayr was clearly a major synthesizer of biology and also a master analyst. He dissected such complex concepts as population thinking, Darwin’s five theses of evolution, chance and necessity in evolution, functional (proximate) and historical (ultimate) causations, biological classification and cladification, teleology and many others; and he proposed new terminologies clarifying many complex issues (1978c). For numerous existing evolutionary concepts Mayr wasaneffectivedisseminator like biological species concept, gene pool, isolating mechanisms of species, geographical (allopatric) speciation and others. New theories which he proposed as an innovator include his theory of island biogeography (1933j, 1940i) and his founder principle or theory of genetic revolutions (1954c). The latter is quite controversial but has stimulated a large amount of research. Also his syntheses include various new insights like his concept of population thinking and his discussions of the autonomy of biology. Mayr’s roles as visionary, organizer and community architect are obvious from his functions as president of various scientific societies and director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University) as well as founding editor of the journal Evolution. Hewas
380 12 Summary: Appreciation of Ernst Mayr’s Science also a museum curator and administrator, teacher, writer, and editor. Innumerable biologists have been enormously influenced by Mayr’s work. It is probably true as Bock (2004c) suggested that Ernst Mayr would not have been as successful in Germany as he was in the United States. If he had stayed in Europe as a curator, the wide gap between museum workers and academia in Germany at that time would have made a transition to a university institute quite difficult, but most importantly he would have been drafted into the army with little chance to survive World War II. Advantages in the United States included his freedom of research, the close communication between museum curators and the academia, and his friendly cooperation with the geneticist-naturalist Th. Dobzhansky who had immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1927. OneofthefoundationsofErnstMayr’ssuccessinsciencewashisunshakeable self-confidence from his youth. This includes his undertaking a one-man exped- Fig.12.1. Ernst Mayr at the age of 97 years in the dinosaur hall of the Museum of Natural History Berlin, Germany celebrating the 75 th anniversary of his PhD examination (June 1926). Persons to the right of E. Mayr (first and second rows) are Prof. Otto Kraus (Hamburg, half-hidden), Mayr’s daughter Mrs. Christa Menzel (USA), Prof. Walter Sudhaus (Berlin), Prof. A.-B. Ischinger (Berlin), Dr. Ellen Strong (USA), and Dr. Matthias Glaubrecht (Berlin). Photograph taken by M. Lüdicke (Berlin) on 25 June 2001
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Jürgen Haffer Ornithology, Evoluti
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Preface Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), emi
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Contents Introduction 1 Part I The
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Contents IX 2 Bibliography of Ernst
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2 Introduction and speciation, the
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4 Introduction (1928-1929) to repla
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Ernst Mayr has been an observer all
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The Family 9 court system. He had a
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The Family 11 Fig.1.1. Family genea
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The Family 13 where they learned La
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Birdwatching 15 even finishing befo
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Birdwatching 17 Fig.1.5. ErnstMayr
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Birdwatching 19 Fig.1.6. Ernst Mayr
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Birdwatching 21 he simply smoked ci
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University Student in Greifswald an
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Friendships at School and Universit
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2 The Budding Scientist PhD Thesis
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TheInfluenceofTeachers 37 excellent
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Erwin Stresemann—Teacher and Frie
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Erwin Stresemann—Teacher and Frie
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Assistant Curator at the Museum of
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Expeditions to New Guinea and the S
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Part II Ornithologist and Evolution
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96 3 The New York Years (1931-1953)
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98 3 The New York Years (1931-1953)
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100 3 The New York Years (1931-1953
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4 Ornithologist and Zoogeographer B
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142 4 Ornithologist and Zoogeograph
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184 5 Biological Species and Specia
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6 Life in North America during Worl
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244 6 Life in North America during
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Part III Professor of Zoology at Ha
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256 7 The Harvard Years (1953-2005)
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8 Evolutionary Biology— Mayr’s
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268 8 Evolutionary Biology—Mayr
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284 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man his coll
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286 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man addresse
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288 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man undertak
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290 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man unaware
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292 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man His hand
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294 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Prize (1
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296 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man the inte
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298 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man I have s
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300 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Fig.9.4.
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302 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man not mali
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304 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man papers d
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306 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man 2005. Me
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308 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man Fig.9.5b
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310 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man health i
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312 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man person a
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314 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man with a r
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316 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man conceptu
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318 9 Ernst Mayr—the Man the two
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10 Systematics and Classification T
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322 10 Systematics and Classificati
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Page 387 and 388: Acknowledgments Iamdeeplygratefulto
Page 389 and 390: List of Abbreviations AAAS American
Page 391 and 392: 386 References Beehler BM, Pratt TK
Page 393 and 394: 388 References Cracraft J (2002) Go
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Page 405 and 406: Appendix 1 Curriculum Vitae (includ
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Page 411 and 412: Appendix 2 407 1926c Das Freibrüte
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Page 425 and 426: Appendix 2 421 1954g The tail molt
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Appendix 2 431 in Acta Soc. Zool. B
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Appendix 2 433 1974b The diversity
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Appendix 2 435 1976m Evolution and
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Appendix 2 437 Mankind 13:430; P.W.
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Appendix 2 439 (1984) in Queen’s
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Appendix 2 441 1984c Evolution and
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Appendix 2 443 1987b The status of
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Appendix 2 445 1990 1990a The Myth
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Appendix 2 447 1992f Haldane’s Ca
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Appendix 2 449 1995g The search for
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Appendix 2 451 1999 1999a Thoughts
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List of Books by Ernst Mayr 453 200
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Coauthorship 455 Coauthorship In th
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Appendix 3 457 (4) Systematics 1942
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Index Achievements 379 Adaptation 2
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Index 461 Faunas 164-165 Family 8-1
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Index 463 Realism and education 372
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