The Import of Darwinism
in Philosophy
Darwin's conceptual
scheme for explaining the origin and evolution of species as being a
consequence of natural selection has become the conceptual thread that ties
together essentially all of modern biology. More remarkably, what we may loosely
call Darwinism has impacted nearly every field and perennial question in
philosophy.
At least five reasons
readily come to mind why Darwin's ideas have had such broad impact.
1) By providing an
alternative to intelligent design as the explanation of the origin of all
living and extinct species, including Homo sapiens, Darwinian evolution
undermines one of the most compelling arguments for the role of a supernatural
creator in the natural world and in human affairs. This alternative
explanation reopens a great many philosophical questions in which Western
thought had previously presumed a major role for the Creator. It thus
impacts metaphysics, ontology, and ethics.
2) By invoking
gradual change as the mechanism of the development of all the amazing variations
of form and behavior seen among living things, Darwinism calls into question
many of the sharp distinctions made historically by philosophers and
pre-Darwinian scientists. Epistemology and volition in an evolved
creature cannot be entirely separate from biology. Neither can ethics,
social organization (including concepts of governance and justice), or
esthetics, since each of these could at least potentially be subject to natural
selection.
3) By invoking
chance as the raw material on which natural selection can work, Darwinism begs
the question as to how much of our nature, history, and culture are, even more
than we previously suspected, the result of chance rather than of destiny or
physical or historical laws. Thus Darwinism further impacts virtually all
the fields mentioned above.
4) Since Darwinism
in itself invokes no values, and requires of "fitness" only that it
be a measure of the ability of an individual to have fertile offspring in its
current environment, the structure of the theory gives considerable inspiration
to all those who contemplate relativism in many different fields.
5) Since evolution
through natural selection applies not only to biological populations, but to
any system in which entities are capable of reproduction with random
alterations and variable reproductive success, Darwin's ideas also have at
least some bearing on cultural products and beliefs, and perhaps also nonliving
physical forms, from tiny crystals to the nature of the multiverse.
Obviously, in our cafe,
we have no hope of being exhaustive, balanced, or scholarly in our evaluation
of the impact of Darwinism. Instead, we propose to conduct a parlor game:
Any player may nominate a philosophical field or question as one upon
which Darwinism has had, or should have, no significant bearing. To that
nomination, the cafe will respond with either assent or counter-examples, and
probably both!
In honor of Darwin's
February birthday, we invite you to the party and encourage you to bring a
nomination to share.
READINGS
Online:
Evolution and
Philosophy, An Introduction, John S. Wilkins (a Research Fellow in Philosophy
at the University of Sydney, the author of Defining Species: A Sourcebook from
Antiquity to Today.)
Darwinism, Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Books:
Darwin's Dangerous Idea,
Daniel C. Dennett (1991)
Darwinism and
Philosophy, Vittorio Hosle and Christian Illies (2005)
