The Structure of Evolutionary Theory The Structure of Evolutionary Theory The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002) is Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould's technical book on macroevolution and the historical development of evolutionary theory. The book was twenty years in the making, published just two months before Gould's death. Aimed primarily at professionals, the volume is divided into two parts. The first is a historical study of classical evolutionary thought, drawing extensively upon primary documents; the second is a constructive critique of the modern synthesis, and presents a case for an interpretation of biological evolution based largely on hierarchical selection, and the theory of punctuated equilibrium
Evolutionary theory of the self systems are characteristic of the brain. Organisms need to identify itself from others in many complex ways, thus many areas of the brain are used when distinguishes self from other. We need to understand that the brain is full of distributed mechanisms, thus creating an expectation that the self will be too. With this understanding, the Evolutionary Theory of the Self avoids all the difficulties about the unified and central mechanisms that traditional conceptions hold. In addition, the brain-based model of the evolutionary theory recognizes that the majority of the mental tasks highly complex organisms do are unconscious. Simply put,