Darwin's Dangerous Idea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Darwin's Dangerous Idea | |
 |
|
| Author | Daniel C. Dennett |
|---|---|
| Subject(s) | Evolution, ethics |
| Genre(s) | Science, philosophy |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
| Publication date | 1995 |
| Pages | 586 |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-670-03186-0 |
| Preceded by | Consciousness Explained |
| Followed by | Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness |
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life (1995) is a controversial book by Daniel Dennett which argues that Darwinian processes are the central organising force in the Universe. Dennett asserts that natural selection is a blind and algorithmic process which is sufficiently powerful to account for the generation and evolution of life including the ins and outs of human minds and societies. These assertions have generated a great deal of debate and discussion within the scientific community.
Contents |
[edit] Chapters
- Part I: Starting in the Middle
- 1. Tell Me Why
- 2. An Idea Is Born
- 3. Universal Acid
- 4. The Tree of Life
- 5. The Possible and the Actual
- 6. Threads of Actuality in Design Space
- Part II: Darwinian Thinking in Biology
- 7. Priming Darwin's Pump
- 8. Biology Is Engineering
- 9. Searching for Quality
- 10. Bully for Brontosaurus
- 11. Controversies Contained
- Part III: Mind, Meaning, Mathematics, and Morality
- 12. The Cranes of Culture
- 13. Losing Our Minds to Darwin
- 14. The Evolution of Meanings
- 15. The Emperor's New Mind, and Other Fables
- 16. On the Origin of Morality
- 17. Redesigning Morality
- 18. The Future of an Idea
[edit] Central concepts
[edit] Natural selection as an algorithm
Dennett describes natural selection as a substrate neutral and mindless algorithm for moving through "Design Space".
[edit] Universal acid
Dennett writes about the fantasy of a “universal acid” as a liquid that is so corrosive that it would eat through anything that it came into contact with, even a potential container. Such a powerful substance would transform everything it was applied to; leaving something very different in its wake. This is where Dennett draws parallels from the “universal acid” to Darwin’s idea:
“it eats through just about every traditional concept, and leaves in its wake a revolutionized world-view, with most of the old landmarks still recognizable, but transformed in fundamental ways.”
While there are people who would like to see Darwin’s idea contained within the field of biology, Dennett asserts that this dangerous idea inevitably “leaks” out to transform other fields as well.
[edit] Skyhooks and cranes
Dennett used the term "skyhook" to describe a source of design complexity that did not build on lower, simpler layers - in simple terms, a miracle.
In philosophical arguments concerning the reducibility (or otherwise) of the human mind, Dennett's concept pokes fun at the idea of intelligent design emanating from on high, either originating from God, or providing its own grounds in an absurd, Münchausen-like bootstrapping manner.
Dennett also accuses various competing neo-Darwinian ideas of making use of such supposedly unscientific skyhooks in explaining evolution, coming down particularly hard on the ideas of Stephen Jay Gould.
Dennett contrasts theories of complexity which require such miracles with those based on "cranes", structures which permit the construction of entities of greater complexity but which are themselves founded solidly "on the ground" of physical science.
[edit] Reception
In the New York Review of Books, John Maynard Smith gave praise for Darwin's Dangerous Idea:
"It is therefore a pleasure to meet a philosopher who understands what Darwinism is about, and approves of it. Dennett goes well beyond biology. He sees Darwinism as a corrosive acid, capable of dissolving our earlier belief and forcing a reconsideration of much of sociology and philosophy. Although modestly written, this is not a modest book. Dennett argues that, if we understand Darwin's dangerous idea, we are forced to reject or modify much of our current intellectual baggage…" [1]
In the New York Review of Books, Stephen Jay Gould criticised Darwin's Dangerous Idea for being an "influential but misguided ultra-Darwinian manifesto".
"Daniel Dennett devotes the longest chapter in Darwin's Dangerous Idea to an excoriating caricature of my ideas, all in order to bolster his defense of Darwinian fundamentalism. If an argued case can be discerned at all amid the slurs and sneers, it would have to be described as an effort to claim that I have, thanks to some literary skill, tried to raise a few piddling, insignificant, and basically conventional ideas to "revolutionary" status, challenging what he takes to be the true Darwinian scripture. Since Dennett shows so little understanding of evolutionary theory beyond natural selection, his critique of my work amounts to little more than sniping at false targets of his own construction. He never deals with my ideas as such, but proceeds by hint, innuendo, false attribution, and error." [2]
Gould was also a harsh criticizer of Dennett's idea of the "universal acid" of natural selection and of his subscription to the idea of memetics.
Dennett's response and an exchange between Dennett, Gould, and Robert Wright can be found on here.[3]
Biologist H. Allen Orr wrote a scathing review emphasizing similar points in the Boston Review,[4] to which Dennett later responded.[5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ New York Review of Books: John Maynard Smith "Genes, Memes, & Minds," 1995
- ^ Evolution: The Pleasures of Pluralism
- ^ Daniel Dennett "'Darwinian Fundamentalism': An Exchange," 1997
- ^ Boston Review:Orr Reviews "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" by Daniel Dennett
- ^ Reply to Orr
Dennett, Daniel (1995), Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82471-X.
[edit] External links
- Book review in the Journal of Scientific Exploration.
- Gould's response to Dennett's "neo-Darwinian orthodoxy" from the New York Review of Books, June 26, 1997.
- Dennett's response to criticism.
- Danny Yee's Book Review of "Darwin's Dangerous Idea"
|
||||||||||
