Table Of ContentTHE FRONTIERS COLLECTION
THE FRONTIERS COLLECTION
Series Editors:
A.C. Elitzur L. Mersini-Houghton M. Schlosshauer M.P. Silverman R. Vaas H.D. Zeh
J. Tuszynski
Thebooksinthiscollectionaredevotedtochallengingandopenproblemsattheforefrontof
modern science, including related philosophical debates. In contrast to typical research
monographs, however, they strive to present their topics in a manner accessible also
toscientificallyliteratenon-specialistswishingtogaininsightintothedeeperimplications
and fascinating questions involved. Taken as a whole, the series reflects the need for a
fundamentalandinterdisciplinaryapproachtomodernscience.Furthermore,itisintendedto
encourageactivescientistsinallareastoponderoverimportantandperhapscontroversial
issues beyond their own speciality. Extending from quantum physics and relativity to
entropy,consciousnessandcomplexsystems–theFrontiersCollectionwillinspirereaders
topushbackthefrontiersoftheirownknowledge.
Other Recent Titles
WeakLinks
StabilizersofComplexSystemsfromProteinstoSocialNetworks
ByP.Csermely
TheBiologicalEvolutionofReligiousMindandBehaviour
EditedbyE.VolandandW.Schiefenho¨vel
ParticleMetaphysics
PrinciplesofEvolution
byMeyer-OrtmannsandThurner
ThePhysicalBasisoftheDirectionofTime
ByH.D.Zeh
MindfulUniverse
QuantumMechanicsandtheParticipatingObserver
ByH.Stapp
DecoherenceandtheQuantum-To-ClassicalTransition
ByM.Schlosshauer
TheNonlinearUniverse
Chaos,Emergence,Life
ByA.Scott
SymmetryRules
HowScienceandNatureareFoundedonSymmetry
ByJ.Rosen
QuantumSuperposition
CounterintuitiveConsequencesofCoherence,Entanglement,andInterference
ByM.P.Silverman
Serieshomepage–springer.com
Martin Brinkworth Friedel Weinert
l
Editors
Evolution 2.0
Implications of Darwinism in Philosophy
and the Social and Natural Sciences
Editors
Dr.MartinBrinkworth Dr.FriedelWeinert
UniversityofBradford UniversityofBradford
SchoolofMedicalSciences DivisionofHumanities
GreatHortonRoad GreatHortonRoad
BD71DPBradford BD71DPBradford
UnitedKingdom UnitedKingdom
[email protected] [email protected]
SeriesEditors:
AvshalomC.Elitzur
Bar-IlanUniversity,UnitofInterdisciplinaryStudies,52900Ramat-Gan,Israel
email:[email protected]
LauraMersini-Houghton
Dept.Physics,UniversityofNorthCarolina,ChapelHill,NC27599-3255,USA
email:[email protected]
MaximilianSchlosshauer,Ph.D.
InstituteforQuantumOpticsandQuantumInformation,AustrianAcademyofSciences,
Boltzmanngasse3,A-1090Vienna,Austria
email:[email protected]
MarkP.Silverman
TrinityCollege,Dept.Physics,HartfordCT06106,USA
email:[email protected]
Ru¨digerVaas
UniversityofGiessen,CenterforPhilosophyandFoundationsofScience,35394Giessen,
Germany
email:[email protected].
DieterZeh
GaibergerStraße38,69151Waldhilsbach,Germany
email:[email protected]
ISSN1612-3018
ISBN978-3-642-20495-1 e-ISBN978-3-642-20496-8
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-20496-8
SpringerHeidelbergDordrechtLondonNewYork
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2011939306
#Springer-VerlagBerlinHeidelberg2012
Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.Allrightsarereserved,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialis
concerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation,broadcasting,
reproductiononmicrofilmorinanyotherway,andstorageindatabanks.Duplicationofthispublication
orpartsthereofispermittedonlyundertheprovisionsoftheGermanCopyrightLawofSeptember9,
1965,initscurrentversion,andpermissionforusemustalwaysbeobtainedfromSpringer.Violations
areliabletoprosecutionundertheGermanCopyrightLaw.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,etc.inthispublicationdoesnotimply,
evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevantprotective
lawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Printedonacid-freepaper
SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com)
Foreword: The Debate over Darwinism
Theyear2009didnotlackforDarwinanniversarymeetings,allovertheworld.Yet
theconferencethattookplaceinthenortherncityofBradford–wheremostofthe
papers collected in this splendid volume were originally presented – marked an
especially fitting tribute. For Bradford is really where the story started. Not, of
course, the story of how Darwin came to develop his evolutionary ideas, or to
compose On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in a way that
eventuallymadethoseideaspersuasivetothescientificcommunity.Whatbeganin
the Bradford region is the tradition of creative disagreement about what those
ideasmean.
Itistoolittleremembered,evenlocally,thatDarwinwasinthevillageofIlkley–
just20minutesnorthofthecity–whentheOriginwaspublishedon24November
1859.HefirstlaideyesontheOrigininIlkleyinearlyNovember.‘Iaminfinitely
pleased and proud at the appearance of my child’, Darwin wrote back to his
London-based publisher, John Murray. And it was during Darwin’s visit that,
with the help of the village post office, he launched himself on the hard work of
converting or, as one of his friends joked, perverting his peers to the new ideas.
Mike Dixon and I have told the full story of Darwin’s 9-week stay in our book
DarwininIlkley[1].HereIwantonlytosketchthebackgroundtoDarwin’stripup
north at such a consequential moment, and also to examine briefly a part of that
initialdebate–notablytodowiththeevolutionofmind,thequestionofpurposeor
teleologyinevolution,andthevexedmatterofevolution’spoliticalorideological
implications.
What broughtDarwinto Ilkley in the autumn of1859?Theanswer is straight-
forward: he came for the ‘water cure’, or ‘hydropathy’ as it was more fancily
known.Thiswasafashionablealternativetherapyoftheday.Devoteesofthecure
subjectedthemselvestoaregimeofcoldbaths,wetsheetsandcopiousdrinkingof
coldwater,combinedwithsimpleeatingandoutdoorwalks.Bymid-1859Darwin,
then50yearsoldandamanwhohadspentmuchofhisadulthoodsufferingfroma
mysterious ailment, had become a fan of the cure, and the visit to Ilkley was his
treattohimselfforhavingslavedovertheproofsoftheOriginthepreviousmonths.
He arrived on 4 October 1859 with his health broken, and left on 7 December
feeling,forhim,nottoobad.‘[D]uringgreatpartofdayIamwanderingonthehills,
v
vi Foreword:TheDebateoverDarwinism
and trying to inhale health,’ he wrote to the cleric, naturalist and man of letters
Charles Kingsley on 30 November. And in mid-December, now back in Kent,
hewrotetohisbrotherErasmus:‘ThelatterpartofmystayatIlkleydidmemuch
good.’
For a couple of weeks at either end of the visit Darwin stayed by himself at
Ilkley’sgrandhydropathichotel(nowluxuryflats).Inbetweenhewasjoinedbyhis
wifeandchildren,residingwiththemjustdowntheroadfromthehotel,inanother
building which still stands. His family left on 24 November – publication day for
theOrigin.AlthoughDarwindidmanagetogetsomerest,thebookwasaconstant
presencethroughoutthe9weeks.InIlkleyhemadefinal-finalchangestothetext,
decided on the people who were to receive complimentary advance copies, and
even,afterpublication,madethesmallbutsignificantchangesthatwentpublicin
January 1860 within the second edition of the Origin. It was also here that he
awaitedthejudgementofthescientificworldonthebook.Therewerethenewspa-
perandjournalreviewers,ofcourse,andtherecipientsoftheadvancecopies.But
no judgement meant more to him that that of his friend and mentor Sir Charles
Lyell,whohadspentthesummerof1859readingcopiesofthecorrectedproofs.
Darwin’s Ilkley correspondence with Lyell, which started almost immediately
afterDarwin’sarrival,preservesadebatethateasilyranksasthedeepestandmost
importantthatDarwineverengagedinoverhisbook.Lyellwasoneofthegreatest
nineteenth-century British geologists, who taught that earthly change has always
been a matter of the slow, gradual accumulation of the effects of the small-scale
causesofchangeobservedtoday:wind,rain,earthquakesandsoon.Darwinwasa
Lyellian from the time he was a young man on the Beagle voyage; soon after the
voyage,thediscipleshipbecameafriendship.ForDarwin,Lyelltoweredoverother
naturalists–hewasDarwin’s‘LordChancellor’,asDarwinonceputitinaletter–
andsoLyell’sresponsemeantagreatdeal,personallybutalsostrategically,inthat,
Darwinreckoned,whereLyellled,otherswouldfollow.
The letters that flowed between Lyell and Darwin throughout October and
November 1859 record a searching, wide-ranging, no-holds-barred discussion of
Darwin’s proposals in the Origin. In the way that good mentors are, Lyell was
encouraging and helpful in all kinds of ways. But he was no evolutionist, and so
pressedDarwinveryhardindeedonhisargumentsforanevolutionarytheorythat,
in its emphasis on the gradually accumulating effects of processes observable
today, was alarmingly Lyellian. Not least troubling about the theory for Lyell, a
devoutChristian,waswhetherthetheoryassignsGodanimplausiblysmallrolein
thespecies-makingprocess.Famously,ornotoriously,naturalselectionmakesGod
ahypothesisofwhichwehavenoneed–except,maybe,asthebeingwhocreated
thelawsofnaturebehindnaturalselection.ForLyell,bycontrast,plantandanimal
specieswereGod’shandiwork,downtothefinestdetail.Ashehadwrittennearthe
closeofhisPrinciplesofGeology(1830–1833):‘[I]nwhateverdirectionwepursue
ourresearches,whetherintimeorspace,wediscovereverywhereclearproofsofhis
CreativeIntelligence,andofHisforesight,wisdom,andpower’.
IntheIlkleycorrespondencebetweenDarwinandLyell,oneissuethatbrought
theseconcernsaboutdivineknowledgeandforesightintotheopenwasthequestion
Foreword:TheDebateoverDarwinism vii
ofevolutionaryprogress.OverandoveragaininhisletterstoDarwin,Lyellasked,
indifferentways,whetherevolutionbynaturalselectioncanbyitselfsatisfactorily
accountforhowaplanetthat,atonetimeinthepast,waspopulatedbyanimalsno
moreintelligentthanLepidosiren(primitiveSouthAmericanfish),eventuallycame
tosupportanimalsasintelligentasLyells.AsLyellappreciated,naturalselectionis
a theory of what happens when ordinary processes of reproduction meet the
ordinary struggle for life. But, asked Lyell, is not the shift from something as
simple as a fish to something as complex as a human extraordinary – so much so
thatitsexplanationmustinvolvesomethingmorethanordinaryprocesses?Perhaps,
Lyell,wenton,weneedtomakeappealtosomefurther,extraordinaryprinciple–a
complexifying principle, a principle of progress – programmed into life from the
beginning.Onsuchaview,evolutionbecomesnotthechancy,undirectedbusiness
itwasforDarwin,butthegradualunfoldingorrealizationofGod’splan,withthe
emergenceofManattheendasthegoal,thetelos.
Needless to say, such a view is anathema to Darwinians. They will be glad to
learnthat,inreplytoLyell,Darwindidnotletthemdown.Toacceptthetheoryof
naturalselectionasexplaining thefish-to-manshift, saidDarwin, alloneneedsto
acceptisthat(1)someindividualsaremoreintelligentthanothers,(2)atleastsome
of that variability in intelligence is inherited, and (3) being more intelligent is an
advantageinthestruggleforlife.Providedtheseconditionsaremet–and,Darwin
thought, they obviously are – then natural selection can accumulate intelligence,
withnolimits.AsDarwinsummarizedtoLyell,thereis‘nodifficultyinthemost
intellectualindividualsofaspeciesbeingcontinuallyselected;&theintellectofthe
newspeciesthusimproved...’
So: no spooky surplus principles needed. But Darwinian readers should not
cheer too loudly for their hero quite yet, for Darwin went on, by way of offering
Lyellpersuasiveevidenceofselection’spowertoincreaseintelligence,tosuggest
that the process can be observed now ‘with the races of man; the less intellectual
races being exterminated...’ Such passages in Darwin’s writings, published and
private, make for uncomfortable reading in the twenty-first century, and it is
tempting to overlook them. But anniversaries should be occasions for reflecting
both on what we now approve of in Darwin and what we find incorrect or even
repellent.
Letuscontinue,however,withthefish-to-manletter;forDarwingoesontogive
Darwinians something to cheer about – a statement as strong as the most ardent
ones could wish for affirming Darwin’s opposition to spookiness in science. He
wrote to Lyell: ‘I would give absolutely nothing for theory of nat. selection, if it
requires miraculous additions at any one stage of descent ... I think you will be
driventorejectalloradmitall.’Itisworththinkingaboutthatlastline,onreading
throughthechaptersthatfollow,abouteverythingfromthepossibilityofDarwinis-
ing Lamarckian change, the prospects for Darwinian medicine, the problem of
the ethical treatment of our fellow animals. To Darwin, acceptance of his theory
wasallornothing;onewaseitherwithhimalltheway,oragainsthimalltheway.
Yet in the end, he got Lyell to come with him only most of the way (Lyell never
fullyadmittedhumankindintotheordinary-evolutionarypicture).Forus,morethan
viii Foreword:TheDebateoverDarwinism
acenturyandahalflater,andwhetherwearereligiouslyinclinedornot,itremains
an open question whether we wish to go all the way with Darwin – and ,if we do
wish to go all the way, a no less open question as to where that commitment will
takeus.
CentreforHistoryandPhilosophyofScience GregoryRadick
UniversityofLeeds
Leeds,UK
Reference
1. M.Dixon,G.Radick:DarwininIlkley.TheHistoryPress,Stroud(2009)
Contents
Introduction .................................................................... 1
MartinBrinkworthandFriedelWeinert
PartI DarwinisminApproachestotheMind
TheEmbodimentofMind .................................................... 11
GeraldM.Edelman
Depression:AnEvolutionaryAdaptationOrganisedAround
theThirdVentricle ............................................................ 23
ColinA.HendrieandAlasdairR.Pickles
DoesDepressionRequireanEvolutionaryExplanation? .................. 33
SarahAshelford
ADarwinianAccountofSelfandFreeWill ................................ 43
GonzaloMunevar
TheProblemof‘Darwinizing’Culture(orMemes
astheNewPhlogiston) ........................................................ 65
TimothyTaylor
PartII ImpactofDarwinismintheSocialSciencesandPhilosophy
EvolutionaryEpistemology:ItsAspirationsandLimits ................... 85
AnthonyO’Hear
Angraecumsesquipedale:Darwin’sGreat‘Gamble’ ....................... 93
StevenBond
ix
x Contents
DarwinianInferences ........................................................ 111
RobertNolaandFriedelWeinert
BreakingtheBondsofBiology–NaturalSelectioninNelson
andWinter’sEvolutionaryEconomics ..................................... 129
EugeneEarnshaw-Whyte
TheEthicalTreatmentofAnimals:TheMoralSignificance
ofDarwin’sTheory .......................................................... 147
RobLawlor
PartIII PhilosophicalAspectsofDarwinismintheLifeSciences
IsHumanEvolutionOver? .................................................. 167
SteveJones
EvolutionaryMedicine ....................................................... 177
MichaelRuse
TheStruggleforLifeandtheConditionsofExistence:
TwoInterpretationsofDarwinianEvolution .............................. 191
D.M.Walsh
FrequencyDependenceArgumentsfortheCo-evolution
ofGenesandCulture ........................................................ 211
GracielaKuechleandDiegoRios
TakingBiologySeriously:Neo-DarwinismandItsMany
Challenges .................................................................... 225
DavideVecchi
ImplicationsofRecentAdvancesintheUnderstanding
ofHeritabilityforNeo-DarwinianOrthodoxy ............................. 249
MartinH.Brinkworth,DavidMiller,andDavidIles
Index .......................................................................... 255
