One Long Argument by Ernst Mayr

Author:Ernst Mayr
Language: eng
Format: epub

Darwinism as Anti-ideology

Not only natural selection but also many other aspects of Darwin's paradigm were in complete opposition to many of the dominant ideologies of the mid-nineteenth century, as we have seen. In addition to the belief in special creation and the design argument of natural theology, other ideologies that were in total opposition to Darwin's thinking were essentialism (typology), physicalism (reductionism), and finalism (teleology). The adherents of these creeds saw in Darwin's work their most formidable opposition, and whatever the Origin said or implied that was dangerous to their own position was designated by them as Darwinism. But one by one these three ideologies were defeated, and with their demise the concepts of determinism, predictability, progress, and perfectability in the living world were weakened.

One of the by-products of the total refutation of all finalistic aspects of organic evolution was the inevitable reinterpretation of evolution as a historical process subject to temporary contingencies. This led to the stress on opportunism in selection and on the tinkering aspects of evolution. Such a concept of evolution is totally different from all simple transformational changes in the inanimate world, which, though also affected by chance, are primarily controlled by natural laws and thus permit rather strict predictions. A closer approach is provided by complex inanimate systems, such as the weather systems, ocean currents (greatly affected by turbulence), and the interaction of continental plates (resulting in earthquakes and volcanic eruptions), where the multitude of interacting factors and the frequency of stochastic processes defy prediction.

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