2 - Darwinian principles

Summary

In order to assess whether creativity and cultural change are Darwinian, we had better decide beforehand what that would mean. To give a systematic reconstruction of Darwinian thinking for the purpose of this enquiry, in the next section we shall distinguish Darwinian evolution from God-like creation, on the one hand, and Lamarckian evolution on the other. We shall also clarify the more or less metaphorical concept of blind variation. The section on the tautology problem addresses the charge that Darwinian principles are tautological. The concept of replication, reproduction and the so-called units of selection debate is dealt with in the third section of this chapter.

PATTERNS OF CHANGE AND THE BLINDNESS OF VARIATION

Creation

Darwin put forward a special mechanism for evolution, namely natural selection. That Darwin thereby eliminated design was one of the reasons for dismay in the nineteenth century and it continues to bother creationists. The term “design” can, however, refer to two different things: to properties of an object regarded as the designed thing (such as order, adaptedness, function, complexity, etc.), or the process of designing these properties with the help of a conscious, foresightful plan. Darwinism eliminated the second meaning of design, design as a process, which was meant to explain the existence of properties such as adaptedness, that is, design in the first meaning. Design as properties of things is an integral part of Darwinism: it is an important explanandum of Darwinism.