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6 - The Positive Case

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2022

Michael Ruse
Michael Ruse
Affiliation:
University of Guelph, Ontario
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Summary

A little arbitrarily, but not entirely without reason, let us take 1959, the 100th anniversary of the Origin, as the date when the Darwinian paradigm finally came into its own. Natural selection and Mendelian genetics, now rapidly becoming molecular genetics, gave the explanation of the tree of life. If we continue to think in Kuhnian terms, what now of normal science? We should expect to see the subbranches of the consilience come into their own, as practitioners moved forward, theoretically, experimentally, and in nature, raising and solving their problems. And in major respects we do see exactly this.

Keywords

Charles Darwinnatural selectiontheory of evolutiontree of lifebiological progresshuman evolutionscientific metaphormechanismorganicismHerbert SpencerA N Whiteheadfinal causeteleologyadaptationSocial Darwinismatheism [possible alternative – God’s existence]non-Darwinian revolutionevolutionary synthesisvera causaevo-devopunctuated equilibriumStephen Jay GouldRichard Dawkins
Type
Chapter
Information
Understanding Natural Selection , pp. 91 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • The Positive Case
  • Michael Ruse, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: Understanding Natural Selection
  • Online publication: 09 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090865.008
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  • The Positive Case
  • Michael Ruse, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: Understanding Natural Selection
  • Online publication: 09 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090865.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Positive Case
  • Michael Ruse, University of Guelph, Ontario
  • Book: Understanding Natural Selection
  • Online publication: 09 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009090865.008
Available formats
×