Neo-Darwinism

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Frank Visser: In defense of Neo-Darwinism

Frank Visser:

"It (is) entry-level understanding of evolutionary theory that "fittest" in "survival of the fittest" (not Darwin's term, but Spencer's) does not mean strongest, or most selfish, or aggressive, but "most adapted to the demands of the environment"?


Here's a sample of a popular online source:

- A majority of the general public may be able to describe natural selection as "survival of the fittest". When pressed for a further explanation of that term, however, the majority will answer incorrectly. To a person not familiar with what natural selection really is, "fittest" means the best physical specimen of the species and only those in the best shape and best health will survive in nature. This is not always the case. The individuals that survive are not always the strongest, fastest, or smartest. Therefore, "survival of the fittest" may not be the best way to describe what natural selection really is as it applies to evolution. Darwin did not mean it in these terms when he used it in his book after Herbert [Spencer] first published the phrase. Darwin meant "fittest" to mean the one best suited for the immediate environment. This is the basis of the idea of natural selection. (evolution.about.com)


There's even a quote attributed to Darwin which expresses this beautifully—even if it's authenticity is debated, it captures the spirit of his vision:

- "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change." (www.goodreads.com)

So yes, physical strength can be selected for, but so can speed, or color, or agility, or flexibility—or yes, even human intelligence. This changes everything. Sometimes it helps to be big, but in different circumstances it helps to be small. It all depends. Competition and cooperation both exist in nature. Both can be included in a Darwinian perspective. If talent for competition works, it is passed on. If cooperation works, it is passed on too. Ironically, a talent for cooperation is even competitive!


As paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould phrased it well, in an essay about Kropotkin, a Russian biologist and activist who emphasized cooperation:

- This charge against Darwin [that Darwinism undermines morality] is unfair for two reasons. First, nature (no matter how cruel in human terms) provides no basis for our moral values. (Evolution might, at most, help to explain why we have moral feelings, but nature can never decide for us whether any particular action is right or wrong.) Second, Darwin's "struggle for existence" is an abstract metaphor, not an explicit statement about bloody battle. Reproductive success, the criterion of natural selection, works in many modes: Victory in battle may be one pathway, but cooperation, symbiosis, and mutual aid may also secure success in other times and contexts. ("Kropotkin Was No Crackpot", Natural History, 1997)


Secondly, linking the concept of the "selfish gene" to selfishness in general and it's consequences for society overlooks the fact (made clear by Dawkins on numerous occasions but especially in the 30 year jubilee edition of The Selfish Gene, 2006, p. viii) that Dawkins intended the emphasis in that infamous book title to be laid on gene, not on selfish. The larger theoretical discussion is about which biological level is "selfish"—gene, organism, group, species, ecosystem?—in the metaphorical sense of being selected and passed on to future generations. This is lost on the general public, spoon-fed on journalism, which as Dawkins wittily remarks only reads a book by its title [apparently half the title, FV], and not "the long footnote that is the book itself".

It goes without saying that genes can't be selfish, because they don't have feelings in the first place. This most obvious thing still needs stressing, even decades after the book's first publication. This metaphor was suggested by Dawkins' publisher, for good reasons, though alternative titles such as The Immortal Gene were considered as well. (As an aside, would we all have become immortal had this title been chosen, instead of selfish?) Dawkins has many interesting things to say about metaphors and "good poetry", which leads to further research, and "bad poetry", which hinders it.

So Dawkins never claimed that we are inherently selfish because our genes are selfish. On the contrary! For assigning "selfishness" to the gene level—even if only in a strictly metaphorical sense—opened the possibility to have these genes create an organism that displays all kinds of behavior, from extreme selfishness to extreme altruism and everything in between. In the chapter "The Selfish Cooperator" in Unweaving the Rainbow (1998) Dawkins opposes both the notion that humans are essentially selfish and that they are essentially good-natured (as Frans de Waal has argued). Not surprisingly, we are both! And both traits have genetic components which can therefore be transmitted to subsequent generations. The easy logical step from selfish genes to selfish organisms is a non sequitur.

And yes, Darwinism has been misinterpreted often to imply that selfishness is our natural state, and therefore should rule the world, but the first statement is definitely wrong and the second one doesn't follow from the first. (Is natural always right?). But does the existence of false money disprove the existence of real money? Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling's favorite book was The Selfish Gene, which left Dawkins "mortified" when he read about this in The Guardian (The God Delusion, Chapter 6: The Roots of Morality, p. 215n.)


This grave misunderstanding gets corrected in the same footnote, by referring to the article "Animal Instincts" written by journalist and animal science writer Richard Conniff, who writes perceptively and concisely:

- Genes may be selfish. But people have evolved to be social. And these days, the Darwinian view includes an understanding that cooperation and even altruism are part of our genetic heritage. (The Guardian, 27 May 2006)

...

Darwin's whole intent and purpose of writing The Descent of Man was to argue for a fully naturalistic explanation of the human species.[1] There was no Divine Plan, no Special Creation, no Hand of God infusing the great apes with intelligence. This was "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" in a nutshell, as Dennett's book by the same title has it. Has Daniel Dennett "distorted" Darwin, as Loye claims in the audio? What is this "dangerous idea"? That evolution is thinkable and explainable without postulating purpose, design, a Divine Plan etc. Now that was a vision that would meet with strong resistance in the nineteenth century (and in the US even in this 21st century)! Not the opposite view, that human beings have some special status over nature, for that was and is a common understanding. Tempting as it is to see things in nature as "designed" (by a "Designer" or Eros), a naturalistic explanation is possible that does away with that hypothesis "

(https://www.integralworld.net/visser82.html)