The Mind's Eye: George G. Simpson's Use of Visual Language
Late in life, the American paleontologist George G. Simpson (1902-1984) remarked that "I compose my writing visually —I think visually, then translate that into words … I visualize at least as much as I verbalize, perhaps more. Even in abstract theory I often visualize first & then describe in words what I saw mentally." In much of his most significant theoretical work, Simpson did indeed use just such visual language to translate his more original concepts and interpretations regarding, for example, statistical inferences about evolving lineages, relationships of spedation to higher taxonomic categories, ratio diagrams of morphological dimensions, and species-density contouring. Simpson's most interesting and innovative visualizations had to do with organism-environment relationships, including adaptive landscapes, prospective and realized functions of organisms and environments, and especially the adaptive grid upon which he summarized his argument for variable rates and patterns of evolution —"tempo and mode" —in response to differing ecological opportunities available to animal and plant species. "There [is] much evidence that truly productive thinking in whatever area of cognition takes place in the realm of imagery." — Rudolf Arnheim "Acceptance of the conceptual importance of visual modes of discourse will require a rather fundamental change of intellectual values within the history of science" — Martin Rudwick "A diagram is no proof! A diagram is no proof!"—Francis Toner