Ernst Mayr

Life is simply the reification of the process of living.

Summary

Ernst Mayr (1904 - 2005) was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist

His work contributed to the conceptual revolution that led to the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis of Mendelian Genetics, Systematics, and Darwinian Evolution, and to the development of the Biological Species Concept.

He proposed a new definition of Species - a population that has a genetic structure which is maintained in time (see Biological Basis of Biodanza)

Ideas

• Mayr rejected Reductionism in Evolutionary Biology, arguing that evolutionary pressures act on the whole organism, not on single genes, and that genes can have different effects depending on the other genes present.
• He advocated a study of the whole genome rather than of isolated genes only.
• After proposing the Biological Species Concept, Mayr played a central role in debates over what was the best concept. He defended the biological species concept against the many definitions of species that others proposed.