The whole cell as a critique of Darwinism

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: July 11, 2012 July 11, 2012; Hits: 6612 6612

I've just added to our "Critique of Darwinism" section the article "The Secret Power of the Single Cell" by Brian J. Ford. The article was originally published in "The New Scientist," 24 April 2010, with the subtitle "Is a neuron really a tiny computer? How do lowly amoebae build complex shells? Single cells may tell us a lot about the roots of intelligence." Accounting for the whole cell faces the Modern Synthesis with perhaps its greatest and most easily marshaled challenge, short, that is, of accounting for consciousness and free will.