Abstract
Science progresses in fits and starts. Its progress seems to be inhibited when strong and unyielding schools of thought develop around a particular subject, or when scholars become convinced that the dominant theories of their time are always right. On the other hand, science blossoms when disciplines which previously followed different trajectories suddenly find common ground. There has been a realization that a given theory grows, not shrinks, in importance when it incorporates findings from another discipline. Like Balon’s (1986) ontogenetic saltations, science progresses from stable states through less stable states. A multitude of processes must reach completion simultaneously if they are to interactively form the next stable state.
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© 1989 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht
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Bruton, M.N. (1989). Prologue. In: Bruton, M.N. (eds) Alternative Life-History Styles of Animals. Perspectives in vertebrate science, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2605-9_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2605-9_1
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