Evolution for the rest of us

PUBLISHER:

redshirt

Shaun Johnston:
In modern times we've made two revolutionary discoveries. One is, how changes in physical matter can be accounted for in terms of physical laws that can predict precisely what will happen next. Having given rise to science (how this can be studied) and industry (how it can be applied) this revolution is well under way.

The second revolution is, how emergence of species of living creatures can be accounted for in terms of them evolving from one another. This revolution, despite its promise of how much it could tell us about ourselves, remains stillborn through the mistaken application to it of principles coming out of the first revolution--reductive physicalism.

For this second revolution to advance it should be taken from under the wing of science and studied on its own terms. Tip: one recent product of evolution is creatures with minds. Minds are better studied through methods of the humanities than through those of science. Tell me, does this interest you?

Details: Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston; Published: April 19, 2011 April 19, 2011; Hits: 3475 3475

Single-handed, I'm promoting a new theory of evolution. Coming up with the theory has been the easy part. The hard part has been figuring out how to frame it. As true? Can't be proved. As a humanist alternative to physicalism? "No thank you, we're happy with human nature just the way physicalism defines it." Now I've come up with another framing: what I'm offering is an "intuitive" theory of evolution; evolution for the rest of us; the road not taken (Lamarck, Samuel Butler).

Darwinists have always made a virtue out of the non-intuitiveness of natural selection. For example we're told how impossible it is for non-specialists to appreciate how much can be achieved by selection acting over hundreds of thousands of generations, or how single mutations, each selected for the benefit it alone brings, can each end up a cog in the machinery needed to support human vision. Sufficient understanding of evolutionary theory is out of our reach? Fine, then we'll come up with our own theory, something more intuitive, something we can use to help us account for and enhance our own nature.

Look for it at a movie house near you.