Lamarck 'book review' | Blogitem

PUBLISHER:

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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?

Lamarck "book review"

Details: Written by Shaun Johnston Shaun Johnston; Published: May 18, 2017 May 18, 2017; Hits: 2311 2311

I am grateful to Michael Ruse for permission to reproduce sections from his book "Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology" to fill a glaring omission in my coverage of the pioneers of evolutionary theory. I'd been baffled by how to cover such an inscrutable figure. Ruse covers not only Lamarck's 1809 book, but also explains why the association of evolutionary theory with Lamarck gave the subject such a bad name. Review.