Dr. Phil Oliver
12/13/17
Philosophy and Evolution #2
The issue of evolution and the evolution theory were
first established by Charles Darwin in his 1859’s book, "On the Origin of
Species." The term implies the process by which living things transform or
rather change through time owing to the changes in their heritable behavioral
and physical traits. At this stage of development of the evolution theory,
Darwin is simply a philosopher trying to bring about a different perspective of
life from an angle that people did not seem to take seriously. According to
Darwin, evolution happens through natural selection process in which the
organisms that adapt to the ever-changing environment survives, while the one
that does not adapt has to die. This statement in support of the first claim
now brings about the logical thinking about the claim, and it plays a
significant role in application of philosophy to develop the evolution theory.
Through the philosophical way of thinking, this theory has become one of the
best validated theories in the history of science, which has been supported by a
wide range of scientific disciplines like developmental biology, geology, paleontology,
and genetics.
One of the most significant problem that people have
with regard to evolution has nothing to do with religion, but rather it is philosophical
in nature. If the theory of evolution is accurate and true, these individuals
think, then we are virtually at sea, as nothing is determinate, or even fixed,
and that all the coherence in life is gone, just like it was famously lamented
by Donne regarding the death of physics and two-sphere universe. In the past
five decades many topic and debates have been raised and reviewed, with respect
to evolutionary ethics, naturalism, teleology, and many other relating to the creationism.
Philosophy and evolution can arguably be said to have a relationship dating
back to the origin of the evolution idea itself. This may partly be due to the
fact the philosophy and science came to be separated just about the era when
the first proposal of evolutionary theories took place, and may also be based
on the fact that evolution, from the context of the Darwinian model, was
opposed to the doctrines that were highly cherished by philosophers (Boag). The
very first solid criticism against evolution was based on the notion that species
were eternal in nature, and therefore through this definition, the species
could not be changed. In recent times, the raised criticisms have been based on
the science itself, implying that the principles of true science have not been
met by evolution. These views were also expressed by Darwin himself earlier on
in his development of the evolution theory. For anyone to understand any form
of criticism and evaluation of the evolution and its related fields of study,
one has to understand the philosophy of science into details.
Evolution has always found refuge through the
scientific researches that are steered towards proving its accuracy in
explaining the origin of humans. On the other hand, philosophy and science have
always learned from one another. Philosophy is always drawing fresh strength
from the scientific discoveries, and its material for the wide generalizations,
whereas it imparts to the sciences the world-perspective and methodological
instincts of its general values. Most general guiding standards that lie in the
contemporary science, particularly the evolution principles, were for the first
time articulated by the view power of the philosophical thought. For instance,
the notion or model of the atomic structure of matter and most conjectures regarding
the theory of natural selection were developed from the ancient era by Lucretius,
a philosopher, and later on by Diderot, a French thinker (Boag). Theoretically
it can be argued that his anticipations were transformed into a scientific fact
some centuries later. In this context, it is sound to say that any form of a
scientific theory that may be proved through experimental methods or not, has a
deeper origin which is usually tied to philosophy.
Works Cited
Boag, Simon, et al. Philosophy, Science, and
Psychoanalysis. Karnac Books, 2015.
Murphy, Nancey C. and William R. Stoeger. Evolution
and Emergence: Systems, Organisms, Persons. OUP Oxford, 2007.
Trueba, Gabriel. Why Does Evolution Matter? :
The Importance of Understanding Evolution. Cambridge Scholars Publishing,
2014.
Zilhão, António. Evolution, Rationality and
Cognition: A Cognitive Science for the Twenty-First Century. Routledge,
2005. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Science.
Link to #1 Instalment: http://cophilosophy.blogspot.com/2017/12/philosophy-and-evolution.html
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