Book contents
- Understanding Natural Selection
- Understanding Life
- Understanding Natural Selection
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 The Origin of Species
- 2 Organicism and Mechanism: Rival Root Metaphors
- 3 “The Non-Darwinian Revolution?”
- 4 The Synthesis
- 5 Is Natural Selection a Vera Causa?
- 6 The Positive Case
- 7 Time for a Change?
- 8 Natural Selection and Its Discontents
- Envoi
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References
- Figure Credits
- Index
6 - The Positive Case
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2022
- Understanding Natural Selection
- Understanding Life
- Understanding Natural Selection
- Copyright page
- Reviews
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1 The Origin of Species
- 2 Organicism and Mechanism: Rival Root Metaphors
- 3 “The Non-Darwinian Revolution?”
- 4 The Synthesis
- 5 Is Natural Selection a Vera Causa?
- 6 The Positive Case
- 7 Time for a Change?
- 8 Natural Selection and Its Discontents
- Envoi
- Summary of Common Misunderstandings
- References
- Figure Credits
- Index
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.
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- Understanding Natural Selection , pp. 91 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022