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
4 - The Synthesis
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
Now we come to the elephant in the room. Darwin’s theory was incomplete. When the theory was completed, would natural selection prove to be that effective? Although he threw in a lot of assorted, presumed-relevant facts, no one, starting with Darwin, had much idea about the nature of variation – how it comes, what form it takes, how regular it is. And, without this knowledge, given that natural selection supposedly works on this variation, it is hard to make definite judgments about its effectiveness; especially since Darwin stressed that, although variation has causes, it is random in the sense of not appearing according to need. When he was not pushing the Lamarckian alternative, he was adamant that it is selection alone that is responsible for adaptation.
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- Understanding Natural Selection , pp. 56 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022