01.05.10

More on What Darwin Got Wrong: the danger of theories

Posted in Evolution, World History and The Eonic Effect at 3:52 pm by nemo

What Darwin Got Wrong (Hardcover)
~ Jerry Fodor (Author), Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini

This book by Fodor and P/P looks very interesting and is right up our alley here: I requested a review copy a few minutes ago.
However, as per Newman’s blurb below, I would note that the moment of paradigm shift has come many times and the Darwin establishment has slipped away unscathed.
Newman says that evolution needs a persuasive theory, but no such theory is likely to arrive from any source, and even if there was one it would not be as persuasive as the hyped theory of natural selection. The struggle for public acceptance is a false ambition that will tempt all authors to compromise.
These authors have recycled a critique of natural selection (and found a publisher, which is always suspicious) but I will bet a small sum they have no post-Darwinian theory. I don’t hold it against them, quite the contrary, but it would help to point out to the public that a ‘theory’ is hard to come by and that consumers of evolution should act defensively as to theories. Theories like the Darwin brand are dangerous instruments and it might be time to realize that for good Kantian reasons there are not likely to be any simple theories of evolution.
As Robert Wesson, in Beyond Natural Selection, points out (I will look for the exact quote), there are not likely to be any further comprehensive theories of the Darwinian type. Science as we know is not able to produce a ‘theory of evolution’ in closed form, and we can be sure any attempt to defy this logic would generate more hype.
Check out World History And The Eonic Effect: it makes this explicit, and adopts the tactic of ‘tracking evolutionary sequences’ rather than producing a theory.

“Evolution needs a persuasive theory if the struggle for public acceptance is to be won. Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini’s bold treatise, What Darwin Got Wrong, convincingly shows that natural selection is not that theory. Drawing on scientific literature spanning the molecular, behavioral, and cognitive scales, with sophisticated excursions into evolutionary-developmental biology and the physics of complex systems, the authors perform a philosophical dismantling of the standard model of evolutionary change that is likely irreversible. Their unambiguous grounding in the factuality of evolution renders this work a service to science and a setback for its opponents.” —Stuart Newman, Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy, New York Medical College

If you want to be a Darwin critic, I recommend reading World History And The Eonic Effect carefully to see the way that a theory will elude you, and also to see the way that genetics is not sufficient to explain evolution.
Using this book you can defend yourself against the old hype, possible new hype, find out the problem with theories (the Oedipus paradox, etc…), get a glimpse of evolution in action across world history (yes, history) and in general note the way that a Kantian barrier obstructs our views of evolutionary dynamics.

Any theory of evolution must resolve the question of teleology, which is probably impossible, qua Kant.
Further, any theory of human evolution MUST explain the eonic effect! Best of luck.

And, no, the design argument (in the sense of the current Intelligent Design theologians) is not a fall back position (although ‘design’, whatever that means, in general is or ought to be a factor in all naturalistic theories.)

Finally, if you are a Darwin critic and found a publisher, I am suspicious. You copped out somewhere, maybe. Robert Wesson, Soren Lovtrup, Michael Denton, did not, so that is not an absolute, but I am suspicious. To be sure, public ideology could shift, making this suspicion go into reverse gear, but the ability to get a Darwin critique into print is suspicious.

The best way to go is the POD/self-publish route. That way we can be sure no profit motive/ideology gambit influenced the text.

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