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
Envoi
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2022
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
Summary
In 1866, Thomas Hardy, raised a sincere member of the Church of England, wrote his sonnet “Hap.” It expressed the anxiety about – “fear of” is not too strong a term – the world into which natural selection has pitched us. No longer can we rely on a Good God to care for us, to suffer for us, to make possible eternal life. In the non-progressive world of Darwinian evolution, all is meaningless.
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. 148 - 149Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022