Ernst Mayr and evolutionary biology: polemics and synthesis

Abstract

Here, I attempt to explore the interactions between evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr and other biologists in the process that has been called the professionalizing of evolutionary biology, and in the defence of organismal biology and of systematics. I will use the tool of quoting from original writings rather than paraphrasing them, since it is necessary to preserve the flavour of the arguments and controversies that Mayr was involved in, and that led to Mayr's role in helping to build the edifice of evolutionary biology as it is known today.