3 The New York Years (1931–1953)

344 11 History and Philosophy of Biology—Mayr’s Third Synthesis
considered writing a modern book on the development of ornithology (letter to
Mayr dated 12 February 1946). Mayr invited him several months later to include this
book in the series “The Bird Student’s Library” which Oxford University Press was
planning at that time, with Mayr as editor. However, this series did not materialize
and Stresemann’s volume was published in Germany in 1951. Ever since that time
Mayr had tried to launch an English edition and eventually was successful in
1975. There was relatively little American ornithology in Stresemann’s volume and
Mayr agreed to prepare an epilogue entitled “Materials for a History of American
Ornithology” (1975c). In this wide-ranging survey Mayr discussed the history of
museums and of other centers of research in North America, field studies, the role
of ornithological societies and of amateurs and women in ornithology, the history
of American ornithological journals and the significance of technical advances like
bird banding and photography.
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia held a special symposium in
1976 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States. Mayr
(1977f) was invited to present a historical review of the study of evolution: No
theory of evolution was proposed before 1800 when it was advanced by Lamarck.
The main reasons for this long delay, Mayr said, were the adherence to the account
of Creation in Genesis and the philosophy of typological essentialism, according
to which the realities of this world consist of fixed, discontinuous essences. The
belief in these dogmas was gradually undermined by the observations of naturalists
during the 17th and 18th centuries and by the liberating thoughts of the
philosophy of enlightenment. Evolution is “change in the adaptation and in the
diversity of populations of organisms.” Adaptation and speciation are the main
components of evolution and characterize its dual nature. The widespread definition
of evolution as “change in gene frequencies in populations” (which Mayr
unthinkingly had adopted for many years, see p. 269) is unacceptable as it refers to
a result of evolution, an indirect by-product of the superior reproductive success of
certain individuals. The second aspect of evolution, the origin of diversity, is widely
neglected by evolutionists, particularly geneticists. Around 1900 genetics, in the
form of Mendelism, was opposed to Darwinism and natural selection. Naturalists
continued to believe in natural selection, but also in soft inheritance emphasizing
the gradualness of evolution and geographical speciation. The breach between
geneticists and naturalists was healed during the evolutionary synthesis.
Aspects of the history of behavior studies were reviewed (1977c, 1982q, 1983i)
and the three major theories during the 18th century listed: (1) The animal as
a machine without a soul (Descartes, Buffon, La Mettrie and the reflexologists of
the 20th century); (2) The thinking animal, starting with its mind a tabula rasa,
learning by experience throughout life and making use of these experiences in
a rational manner (all those who anthropomorphized animals, like A. E. Brehm
during the 1860s–1870s, were close to this concept as well as the behaviorists of
the 20th century), and (3) The instinct school, from H.S. Reimarus (1762) to B. Altum
(1868) to ethology (Whitman, Heinroth, Lorenz, Tinbergen). After feuding
for 200 years these three schools have synthesized their valid components, beginning
in the 1950s. Mayr (1982q) wrote a foreword for a reprint of the book of the