Pigliucci Deceit Drags Publisher Into Big Muddy
Wednesday, 28 July 2010, 12:45 pm
Opinion: Suzan Mazur
Pigliucci Deceit Drags Publisher Into Big Muddy
By Suzan Mazur
After a two-week review of the following letter, the University of Chicago Press has advised "Via Electronic Mail" and their legal counsel that they stand by their man, Massimo Pigliucci, and will neither remove his junk science book from circulation nor stop public readings from it. They failed to address ANY of the specific points I raise below in their response to me.
"Perry Cartwright
Manager, Contracts & Subsidiary Rights
University of Chicago Press
pcc@press.uchicago.edu
Russell J. Herron, Esq.
Associate General Counsel
University of Chicago
rherron@uchicago.edu
Re: Removal of Massimo Pigliucci's Book from Circulation
Dear Messrs. Cartwright and Herron:
A book published by University of Chicago Press and written by Massimo Pigliucci, entitled Nonsense on Stilts , targets me unfairly in a five-page media section in an attempt by Pigliucci to discredit me and my work as a journalist, a career that began 40 years ago and includes significant contributions to some of the world's most respected news organizations. I object to being included in such a book and specifically to being the focus of Massimo Pigliucci's malicious attack. It is unclear what Pigliucci's motive is, but in his attempt to diminish me and my work through his twisted and disingenuous statements, he casts a very serious shadow on his own reputation both academically and as a man, and does a disservice to science. Pigliucci's misconduct also calls into question whether he is competent to teach with regard to morals and ethics at Lehman College, where he currently heads the philosophy department.
I've been told by the University of Chicago Press that no one there fact-checked Massimo Pigliucci's book. I am asking that the Pigliucci book be removed from circulation. Such a book should have been reviewed by University of Chicago Press lawyers before ever going to the printer. The public expects academic excellence from a university press publication not libelous trash. I am also requesting that you advise Massimo Pigliucci to cease and desist from further derogatory public statements with regard to me and my work and to stop any scheduled readings you have organized for him with regard to his junk science book. Further, I am requesting that you advise Massimo Pigliucci that I seek a public apology from him.
I am also requesting that Lehman College stop all scheduled readings from Pigliucci's junk science book, including the one now scheduled for September, and that Massimo Pigliucci be counseled to cease and desist from further derogatory public statements with regard to me and my work.
At issue are the following points in Massimo Pigliucci's book:
1. Pigliucci titles the five-page section under discussion (pages 99-103), "The Altenberg 16: Conspiracy Theories by and for the Media".
Pigliucci is referring to the July 2008 conference in Altenberg, Austria of 16 biologists and philosophers who met to discuss an extended evolutionary synthesis, pertaining to events beginning 500 million years ago. It was Pigliucci who first promoted the symposium as "a major stepping stone for the entire field of evolutionary biology" in a written invitation to these 16 scientists in early 2008. The invitation was later emailed to me from Konrad Lorenz Institute, host of the workshop -- without restriction -- and I then circulated the invitation on the Internet in March 2008 because of intense public interest.
So if Pigliucci is referring to himself as the "chief villain in the story" (emphasis added) on page 99 of his book -- that statement is true.
2. Pigliucci states at the top of page 100: "I met for coffee with an independent journalist, Suzan Mazur, who had called me a few days earlier saying that she worked for the Philadelphia Inquirer".
I called Massimo Pigliucci in February 2008 introducing myself as a freelance journalist researching a story for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Except for my first years in publishing at Hearst Magazines, decades ago -- when my science and outdoors columns circulated to over a million people around the world -- I have always contributed stories on a freelance basis and never would have told Pigliucci that I was "a regular employee" of the Philadelphia Inquirer, as he notes on page 100.
3. Pigliucci also states at the top of page 100 that I told him I was "working on a story on evolution and its critics". He writes: "I wanted to clearly explain why intelligent design is not science, on the other, I was aware that the journalist had only an approximate grasp of the matter under discussion and that very likely the article would come out as a combination of quasi-accurate statements and things that I had not actually said or meant."
I tape all my formal interviews, and Pigliucci agreed to be taped.
The evolution debate I called Pigliucci to discuss was the controversy surrounding self-organization and the physical approach to evolution -- not intelligent design.
Regarding my journalistic credentials. I was an education major (Biology) for two years in college. I began my writing career as a science journalist 40 years ago at Hearst Magazines. Through the years I've contributed feature articles about science to The Economist, Financial Times, Archaeology, Omni, Connoisseur, Solar Age and others. Among the highlights: In the late 1970s, I investigated solar energy at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research. In 1980, I flew into Olduvai Gorge to interview paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey re evolution and interviewed scientists elsewhere in East and West Africa. In 1981, I interviewed scientists in subSaharan Africa. And at the French Space Agency in Paris. I reported on earthquakes and seismology in Guatemala. Archaeology in Colombia and Turkey. In the early 1980s, heading a solar energy film project, my crew and I were invited by the Swedish government and the Saudi Arabian National Center for Science and Technology to research a television documentary on solar energy villages in those two countries; I was a guest on Saudi-TV in Riyadh discussing the project. During the Gulf War I broke a fetal-to-fetal transplant [surgery] story. Etc.
My book, The Altenberg 16: An Expose of the Evolution Industry (North Altantic Books), which includes the stories Pigliucci derides, has a cover endorsement by the world's most respected public intellectual, Noam Chomsky, which reads as follows: "Very glad to see the book. I suspect it should have some (very much needed) influence now against the background of the "evo-devo revolution" and the belated recognition of Margulis's work."
I've also covered the wars -- Gulf War, Colombian Drug War, Sudan, Kashmir (from both sides of the CFL/LOC). Been a guest on McLaughlin, Charlie Rose and various Fox Television News shows. My television reports on human rights and politics have aired on PBS, CBC, MBC and Fox.
4. In the second paragraph on page 100, Massimo Pigliucci states the following: "Before leaving the coffeehouse, she had asked me what I was up to during the summer, and I casually mentioned some travel plans, including a workshop on the status of evolutionary theory I was organizing in Altenberg (Austria, near Vienna) with the logistical and financial support of the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research (KLI)."
One of the reasons I decided to meet with Pigliucci was that he first pitched to me over the phone that he was organizing a conference in Europe in July about new evolutionary thinking. Again, I taped our conversation at Pret-a-Manger; it is a self-service cafeteria chain -- not a "coffeehouse" as Pigliucci describes it. During that taped conversation Pigliucci again took the opportunity to plug the symposium he was co-organizing at Altenberg. Following the taped conversation, Pigliucci urged me to contact the organizers of the symposium in Europe to see if they were inviting journalists to cover. Here's the partial transcript:
"Suzan Mazur: Are we talking a revision or are we talking about what Jerry Fodor's saying: "All I'm wanting to argue is that whatever the story turns out to be, it's not going to be the selectionist story."
Massimo Pigliucci: I think he's probably dead wrong on that one. Selection is here to stay. Natural selection fundamental principle we know it works. We can see it. We can measure it on a daily basis in living organisms both in controlled conditions and in the field. So to say that natural selection is out of the picture seems to me to discard literally thousands and thousands of empirical papers. And I don't think anybody can afford to do that, let alone Fodor who is actually not trained, apparently is not familiar with that literature.
So, a rejection of natural selection is misleading and in fact erroneous. That is not to say, however, that we don't need a lot of other stuff to work with natural selection to really have a comprehensive understanding of our evolution.
Suzan Mazur: And then to bring together these different fields to talk to one another.
Massimo Pigliucci: Right. That's what I call the extended evolutionary synthesis would be looking like.
Suzan Mazur: Are you talking about this in your new book as well or no?
Massimo Pigliucci: You mean the one that I'm writing?
Suzan Mazur: The one that you're writing now.
Massimo Pigliucci: No that one is for the general public. That has very little to do with this -- these are technical issues. But there will be in July this year -- I think I mentioned to you -- there will be a symposium in Vienna that I helped organize on asking a bunch of theoretical and empirical biologists what do they think about the possibility of a new evolutionary synthesis. And MIT is going to publish the proceedings of that the following year -- 2009. (emphasis added)
Which I guess is also fitting because it's the 150th anniversary of Darwin's publication ofOn the Origin of Species. So it's going to be a big year actually.
Suzan Mazur: Yes and I think also because of the politics changing here, well everywhere, but what's happening here especially.
Massimo Pigliucci: Yes, we might be looking at a very different landscape politically.
Suzan Mazur: Much more positive.
Massimo Pigliucci: From my perspective, yes. [The conversation moves on to a discussion of philosophy and science.]"
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Read more here/Leia mais aqui: The Scoop
NOTA DESTE BLOGGER:
Pigliucci organizou o evento que ficou conhecido como os 16 de Altenberg, onde foi discutido o status epistêmico da Síntese Evolutiva Moderna, e a necessidade de revisá-la. As discussões e opiniões foram publicadas pela MIT Press.
Não sei porque cargas d'água, Pigliucci distorce o que discutiu com Mazur, doura a pílula para o seu lado e de Darwin (a KGB da Nomenklatura científica deve ter apertado os cojones de Pigliucci -- pô, cara, nós vamos entrar nas maiores celebrações de beija-mão e beija-pé de Darwin em 2009, e você com um evento desses ligando o ventilador na farofa de Down???).
Não sei porque cargas d'água, Pigliucci distorce o que discutiu com Mazur, doura a pílula para o seu lado e de Darwin (a KGB da Nomenklatura científica deve ter apertado os cojones de Pigliucci -- pô, cara, nós vamos entrar nas maiores celebrações de beija-mão e beija-pé de Darwin em 2009, e você com um evento desses ligando o ventilador na farofa de Down???).
Mazur desceu o cacete em Pigliucci pela sua molecagem. Dá-lhe, Mazur, que aqui no Brasil este blogger também desce o cacete nesta banda podre da Nomenklatura científica, sem dó nem piedade!
Eu sei de muitas coisas do que estou falando...
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