Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould

Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin by Stephen Jay Gould is an ambitious book that attempts to bridge the divide between two great masters: the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, and the 19th century British evolutionist Charles Darwin. In a series of essays Gould delves deeply into the intellectual history of “naturalistic” thought, tracing the ideas and methods of these two iconic thinkers and their followers in a variety of disciplines including biology, astronomy, and psychology. The overall scope and breadth of this work is impressive; Gould’s book is an essential resource for anyone interested in the progress of human understanding.

The essays of this book are arranged by themes, beginning with the “naturalistic” tendencies of both Plato and Darwin and their respective views on the human mind. Gould then considers more modern interpretations of these ideas in the work of Immanuel Kant and Thomas Henry Huxley. From these thinkers the book moves to discussions of the methodological similarities between science and the philosophy of history, and a general assessment of the progress of ideas that followed from these two great minds.

Gould’s book is an argument for an unified “naturalistic” approach to knowledge and understanding which he claims is central to the development of science. This approach sees the universe as having a unity which can be studied objectively and rationally. Gould makes use of the historical critical method to examine the “Natural History” of science, examining how it uses inductive and deductive reasoning to assess evidence, data, and explanations. As an example, he goes in-depth into the differences between Plato’s view of knowledge as an inherent property of the human mind, and Darwin’s theory of natural selection which substitutes an environment-driven process of adaptation, mutation, and selection.

Full House is not just a book of history, but of philosophy and analysis as well. Gould offers a profound analysis of the “persistent tension” between traditionalism and progressivism that persists in scientific thought today. He suggests that this tension can be seen best as a “contradiction in terms”, as any progress in science is made by challenging the status quo—a process which, in some sense, calls for the rejection of traditional views. The book also goes into detail concerning the role of Metaphysics and its relation to sciences like Physics, Biology, and Mathematics; he argues that the respective translations and extensions of these sciences must be treated with caution.

This book is an important read for anyone with an interest in the history of Western thought and the development and progression of science. Through his writings Gould sheds light on the origins and development of scientific thought and challenges us to consider our current approaches to understanding the universe. He provides an excellent overview of the various disciplines and offers a comprehensive case for the “unified naturalistic vision” that arises from the combined perspectives of Socrates and Darwin. Although some sections of this book may be challenging, its overall thesis will reward sustained exploration and makes it an essential resource for anyone wishing to appreciate the richness of Western thought.