The Plausibility of Life: Kirschner and Gerhart

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: September 11, 2011 September 11, 2011; Hits: 3193 3193

I am delighted to find so robust a rebuttal of the Modern Synthesis from such eminent scholars in the field of evolution. Chapter by chapter they describe "machine tools" (in effect) by application of which living creatures are manufactured and through which they are able to adapt to changing circumstances. These machine tools, embedded in the genome, mask their complexity by offering to circumstances simple levers and buttons by which adaptation and evolution can be effected, as a car's brake and accelerator present to us extremely simple means of control of enormously complex machinery by which we can, with minimal attention, adapt to the changing conditions of the road and our own whims. More...