Evolutionary ideologies

Jonathan Marks

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511980381.024

16 - Evolutionary ideologies

from Part VI - Evolution and Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2012

Jonathan Marks

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Aldo Poiani

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Aldo Poiani: Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria

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Summary

The point I wish to explore in this chapter is scientific authority; who actually gets to speak in Darwin's name, and why it is important that we cast our nets narrowly. Evolution has meant several things to different generations of Darwinians. Most of these versions of Darwinism are recognisable in hindsight as flawed in various ways. Today, as in the past, there are diverse and conflicting Darwinisms, vying for credibility in the marketplace of ideas. The best birthday present we can give Charles Darwin, I will argue, is a clear name.

Human microevolution

Recent scholarship has shown that Darwin himself was strongly engaged with the political ideas of his age: as he was reading Lyell on the Beagle, the British were outlawing slavery in their colonies. The major evolutionary question of the era was not about dinosaurs or finches or tortoises, but about people (Livingstone, 2008; Desmond and Moore, 2009): were black people and white people the products of a single origin or creative act, or of different ones, of which the Bible only recounts the last?

Type: Chapter
Information: Pragmatic Evolution
Applications of Evolutionary Theory
, pp. 297 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511980381.024 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

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