Introduction

JOHN GREENE

I first became aware of Ernst Mayr when, as a graduate student in American history at Harvard in 1947 working on a dissertation which was gradually transforming itself into a study of the rise of evolutionary ideas in Western thought, I decided to audit Professor Alfred Romer's course on evolution. The books for the course included Dobzhanksy's Genetics and the Origin of Species, Huxley's Evolution. The Modern Synthesis, Simpson's Tempo and Mode in Evolution, and Mayr's Systematics and the Origin of Species. Without realizing it, I was being introduced to the neo-Darwinian synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s. I did not actually lay eyes on Ernst Mayr, however, until the late 1950s, the time of the Darwin centennial, when I heard him present a historical paper which left me fuming at some of its interpretations. In the ensuing years Mayr and I continued to diverge in our views about Darwinism and the historical development of evolutionary thought. In the 1980s we exchanged arguments both in correspondence and in print, waxing vehement at times but always with mutual respect. I continued to be astonished that this eminent biologist would take time to debate these historical and philosophical issues with me.

When the call went out for the submission of proposals for the 1993 meeting of the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology, it occurred to me that a session devoted to Mayr 's contributions to systematics, evolutionary theory, and the history and philosophy of biology would be highly desirable. Mayr himself responded to this idea favorably, remarking wryly that it was the kind of symposium that usually occurred when the scientist being discussed was dead. In this case, however, the scientist was alive and kicking and quite happy to agree to attend the session and respond to the papers and to questions from the audience.

The symposium took place as scheduled at Brandeis University on July 16, 1993. When the time came to collect the papers for publication, it appeared that one of them, on Mayr 's contributions to evolutionary theory, would not be available, whereupon Walter Bock generously offered to expand his paper to include that topic as well as his own. This proved to be an ideal solution, for it gave Professor Bock a chance to show how deeply grounded Mayr 's evolutionary ideas were in his work as a naturalist and systematist. As the papers were being revised and collected, I became aware that still another essay, prepared for a different occasion and discussing Mayr's work both as historian and as philosopher of biology, was available from David Hull. On reading the essay, I was only too glad to include it in the present tribute to our distinguished colleague Ernst Mayr.

Biology and Philosophy 9: 265, 1994.