The Concept of Evolution

THERE appears to be a wide measure of agreement, both amongst biologists and others, that Darwin's theory of evolution marks a major breakthrough in the science of biology; Darwin has even been called 'Biology's Newton', the highest term of praise that could be bestowed on a scientist. A. G. N. Flew, considering the matter from a philosophical point of view, says: 'Yet one of the most important of all scientific theories is that developed by Darwin in his Origin of Species. Covering the entire range of biological phenomena its scope is enormous. While if any scientific theory is interesting philosophically this one is.'2 In spite of the testimony of both biologists and philosophers of science to the importance of the theory, it does not appear to play anything like the same role in biology as does Newton's theory in physics. For modern physics would be impossible without Newton's laws or relativistic modifications of them; f = ma is an equation which is bound to crop up in almost all attempts to deal with the external world in a physical manner. Many of the places where biology is advancing bear no relation to the theory of evolution, and a large number of biological papers involve no reference to Darwin or to modifications of this theory. Nevertheless most biologists would state that they accepted, and regarded as important, what is commonly called the theory of evolution; scepticism is rare. Some biologists will admit that one of the strongest motives leading them to accept the theory is the lack of any genuine alternative. Lamarkianism is suggested from time to time, but most scientists in the field would regard it as experimentally disproved, though possibly on not very adequate evidence. Special Creation is not often suggested nowadays, and in any case would seem to be ruled out because no experimental test could be devised for it; hence it does not appear to be a genuine scientific theory. Thus from the time it was propounded, Darwinism has never had to deal with serious scientific opposition. This is in itself an important fact about the theory, for one of the points that I wish to