Darwinism

Overview

Darwinism is a philosophical position which holds that the scientific theory of evolution by natural selection (EbNS), which was first published by Charles Darwin in his book The Origin of Species in 1859, is scientifically "true" – i.e. that it is the explanation of species origins which best fits all the available evidence. Generally, those who agree with the Darwinian position hold that it is not only the best explanation but by far the best explanation, with no other explanation even coming close (excepting minor variations of EbNS itself).

Support

The Darwinian position (i.e. that EbNS is most likely true) is overwhelmingly embraced by the scientific community. It is relentlessly consistent with massive amounts of data collected across multiple scientific disciplines, including anthropology, biology, geology, medicine, and psychology. need to collect more on this

"Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution." – Daniel Dennett

Opposition

The terms "Darwinism" and "evolutionism" are often used pejoratively by groups opposing Darwinian theory (in the sense of holding that it is untrue) in an attempt to frame the theory of evolution by natural selection – an extremely well-established scientific theory – as just another "ism" or ideology, and thereby weaken its apparent credibility.

To the extent that "Darwinism" is an ideology in the sense of being a set of established beliefs and methodologies, those beliefs and methodologies are nonetheless subject to critical scrutiny and revision in the face of new facts – as is true with any area of science and generally in sharp contrast with the fixed ideologies of those who most stridently oppose Darwinian ideas.

Darwinism is also often criticized by anti-Darwinian groups for being "immoral". This is based on several misconceptions, which can be cleared up by considering the following facts:

• Darwinism is not a system of ethics or morals, it is a theory regarding a set of facts; it is neither moral nor immoral. It can be used as a worldview within which a system of morals can be derived, but it says no more about the necessary nature of those morals than does the heliocentric theory of the solar system.
• Darwinism is not the same as "survival of the fittest", which is a kind of shorthand phrase for any sort of competition in which only the "fittest" survive.
  • Although Darwinian theory argues that the fittest do tend to survive, survival is generally a combination of fitness, circumstance, and chance. Darwinian theory also argues that the relevant "fitness" traits must be heritable, which is not true of all survival-related traits.
  • Even if Darwinian theory claimed that survival was contingent on being the "fittest", this is not the same thing as saying that it is right that this is so – e.g. that humans should allow "unfit" individuals to die, or (even more absurdly) allocate the most resources to those individuals best equipped for survival. Confusion of these two claims is also known as the naturalistic fallacy.
  • Although some have tried to use the "survival of the fittest" misinterpretation of Darwinian theory as justification for eugenics and other pseudoscientific ideas, Darwinian theory does not actually support such ideas.
  • Even if belief in some supposedly inescapable moral consequence of Darwinian theory led to undesirable results, this has no effect on whether or not the theory itself is true. The idea that if something must be false if belief in it would lead to undesirable consequences is an example of an appeal to consequences, which is a logical fallacy.

In creationist circles, Darwinism is often blamed for Hitler's Holocaust. Aside from the historical inaccuracy (anti-semitism in Germany predates Darwin by several centuries – see this and this), this is like blaming Newton for ballistic missiles. [1]

Related Pages

• All of the anti-Darwinian arguments can basically be boiled down to Christianity vs. Darwinism; the following pages need to be reorganized and renamed:
  • Evolution vs. direct creation
    • Evolution vs. Intelligent Design (ID is a particular, somewhat de-religionized form of direct creation)

Related Terms

The ideas behind Darwinism are often confused with other seemingly-similar concepts:

• survival of the fittest
• social Darwinism

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia
  • Survival of the fittest
• Conservapedia: redirects to Evolutionism as of 2007-09-01
  • separate article from Evolution
• dKosopedia: no article as of 2007-09-01

Editorials / Opinion

• 2006-02-28 Eugenics doesn't work... (2007-09-01 dead link?) Google cache

Projects

• The Journal of Evolutionary Philosophy: "Dedicated to promoting the theory of evolution as a solid foundation upon which to build a meaningful philosophy of human life" (thus helping to counter the religionist claim that there can be no meaning to life without God/religion)

Filed Links

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