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Darwinism

 
Dictionary: Dar·win·ism   (där'wĭ-nĭz'əm) pronunciation
n.
A theory of biological evolution developed by Charles Darwin and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also called Darwinian theory.

Darwinist Dar'win·ist n.
Darwinistic Dar'win·is'tic adj.

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Political Dictionary: Darwinism
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The body of scientific ideas deriving from Charles Darwin (1809-82); in particular, his theory of the evolution of all animal and plant species through natural selection. Darwinism may usefully be considered both as a general doctrine about man and nature and also as a specific theory of biological evolution. As the former, it is firmly in the camp of materialism and physicalism suggesting, as it does, a single universal law governing all animate phenomena. Just as late Victorians tended to believe in one fundamental law of association for all mental activity, so Darwinism suggested one natural law of development for all forms of life. Not surprisingly perhaps, Darwin himself took immense pleasure in the idea that man and other animals were ‘netted together’. Indeed, many Darwinists held that there was no longer an objective basis for elevating one species above another. Needless to say, Darwinism is also fatal for all arguments from design and special creation. As a specific biological theory, Darwinism shifted the biologist's concern from a concentration on specific types, each with its own fixed form and essence, to a concentration on populations whose boundaries were neither fixed nor predetermined. As a result of unremitting selection pressure, some organisms would be rejected, either by death or by sterility, favouring those organisms better adapted to their niche or environment. In this way, populations evolved by natural selection of favourable, heritable variants. Herbert Spencer's phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ is often accepted as a synonym for natural selection; ‘survival of the fitter’ would in fact be more appropriate. See also social Darwinism.

— John Halliday


Theory of the evolutionary mechanism proposed by Charles Darwin as an explanation of organic change. It denotes Darwin's specific view of how evolution works. Darwin developed the concept that evolution is brought about by the interplay of three principles: variation (present in all forms of life), heredity (the force that transmits similar organic form from one generation to another), and the struggle for existence (which determines the variations that will be advantageous in a given environment, thus altering the species through selective reproduction). Present knowledge of the genetic basis of inheritance has contributed to scientists' understanding of the mechanisms behind Darwin's ideas, in a theory known as neo-Darwinism.

For more information on Darwinism, visit Britannica.com.

Philosophy Dictionary: Darwinism
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Belief in the theory of evolution by natural selection. Core Darwinism has been defined by the biologist Richard Dawkins as ‘the minimal theory that evolution is guided in adaptively nonrandom directions by the nonrandom survival of small random hereditary changes’. The theory in its original form took wing from the observation of Malthus that although living organisms produce multiple offspring, adult populations remain relatively stable in number. Darwin realized that the different chances of survival of differently endowed offspring could account for the natural evolution of species. Nature ‘selects’ those members of a species best adapted to the environment in which they find themselves, much as human animal breeders may select for desirable traits in their livestock, and thereby control the evolution of the kind of animal they wish. In the phrase of Spencer, nature guarantees the ‘survival of the fittest’, although the phrase is misleading in suggesting that an original species, from which others evolve, may not itself continue to occupy some niche to which it is well enough adapted. The Origin of Species was principally successful in marshalling the evidence for evolution, rather than providing a convincing mechanism for genetic change, and Darwin himself remained open to the search for additional mechanisms, whilst also remaining convinced that natural selection was at the heart of it. It was only with the later discovery of the gene as the unit of inheritance that the synthesis known as ‘neo-Darwinism’ became the orthodox theory of evolution in the life sciences. See also creationism, evolutionary ethics, sociobiology.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Darwinism
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Darwinism, concept of evolution developed in the mid-19th cent. by Charles Robert Darwin. Darwin's meticulously documented observations led him to question the then current belief in special creation of each species. After years of studying and correlating the voluminous notes he had made as naturalist on H.M.S. Beagle, he was prompted by the submission (1858) of an almost identical theory by A. R. Wallace to present his evidence for the descent of all life from a common ancestral origin; his monumental Origin of Species was published in 1859. Darwin observed (as had Malthus) that although all organisms tend to reproduce in a geometrically increasing ratio, the numbers of a given species remain more or less constant. From this he deduced that there is a continuing struggle for existence, for survival. He pointed out the existence of variations-differences among members of the same species-and suggested that the variations that prove helpful to a plant or an animal in its struggle for existence better enable it to survive and reproduce. These favorable variations are thus transmitted to the offspring of the survivors and spread to the entire species over successive generations. This process he called the principle of natural selection (the expression "survival of the fittest" was later coined by Herbert Spencer). In the same way, sexual selection (factors influencing the choice of mates among animals) also plays a part. In developing his theory that the origin and diversification of species results from gradual accumulation of individual modifications, Darwin was greatly influenced by Sir Charles Lyell's treatment of the doctrine of uniformitarianism. Darwin's evidence for evolution rested on the data of comparative anatomy, especially the study of homologous structures in different species and of rudimentary (vestigial) organs; of the recapitulation of past racial history in individual embryonic development; of geographical distribution, extensively documented by Wallace; of the immense variety in forms of plants and animals (to the degree that often one species is not distinct from another); and, to a lesser degree, of paleontology. As originally formulated, Darwinism did not distinguish between acquired characteristics, which are not transmissible by heredity, and genetic variations, which are inheritable. Modern knowledge of heredity-especially the concept of mutation, which provides an explanation of how variations may arise-has supplemented and modified the theory, but in its basic outline Darwinism is now universally accepted by scientists.


Veterinary Dictionary: darwinism
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The theory of evolution according to which higher organisms have been developed from lower ones through the influence of natural selection.

Wikipedia: Darwinism
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Charles Darwin in 1868

Darwinism is a term used for various movements or concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or evolution, including ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin.[1][2][3] The meaning of Darwinism has changed over time, and varies depending on who is using the term.[4] In modern usage, particularly in the United States, Darwinism is often used by creationists as a pejorative term.[5]

The term was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in April 1860,[6] and was used to describe evolutionary concepts, including earlier concepts such as Malthusianism and Spencerism. In the late 19th century it came to mean the concept that natural selection was the sole mechanism of evolution, in contrast to Lamarckism, then around 1900 it was eclipsed by Mendelism until the modern evolutionary synthesis unified Darwin's and Gregor Mendel's ideas. As modern evolutionary theory has developed, the term has been associated at times with specific ideas.[4]

While the term has remained in use amongst scientific authors, it is increasingly regarded as an inappropriate description of modern evolutionary theory [7][8][9] For example, Darwin was unfamiliar with the work of Gregor Mendel[10], having as a result only a vague and inaccurate understanding of heredity, and knew nothing of genetic drift.[11]

Contents

Huxley's conception of Darwinism

As "Darwinism" became widely accepted in the 1870s, caricatures of Charles Darwin with an ape or monkey body symbolised evolution.[12]

While the term Darwinism had been used previously to refer to the work of Erasmus Darwin in the late 18th century, the term as understood today was introduced when Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species was reviewed by Thomas Henry Huxley in the April 1860 issue of the Westminster Review.[13] Having hailed the book as, "a veritable Whitworth gun in the armoury of liberalism" promoting scientific naturalism over theology, and praising the usefulness of Darwin's ideas while expressing professional reservations about Darwin's gradualism and doubting if it could be proved that natural selection could form new species,[14] Huxley compared Darwin's achievement to that of Copernicus in explaining planetary motion:

What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular? What if species should offer residual phænomena, here and there, not explicable by natural selection? Twenty years hence naturalists may be in a position to say whether this is, or is not, the case; but in either event they will owe the author of "The Origin of Species" an immense debt of gratitude...... And viewed as a whole, we do not believe that, since the publication of Von Baer's "Researches on Development," thirty years ago, any work has appeared calculated to exert so large an influence, not only on the future of Biology, but in extending the domination of Science over regions of thought into which she has, as yet, hardly penetrated.[6]

19th Century usage

"Darwinism" soon came to stand for an entire range of evolutionary (and often revolutionary) philosophies about both biology and society. One of the more prominent approaches was that summed in the phrase "survival of the fittest" by the philosopher Herbert Spencer, which was later taken to be emblematic of Darwinism even though Spencer's own understanding of evolution was more similar to that of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck than to that of Darwin, and predated the publication of Darwin's theory. What is now called "Social Darwinism" was, in its day, synonymous with "Darwinism" — the application of Darwinian principles of "struggle" to society, usually in support of anti-philanthropic political agendas. Another interpretation, one notably favoured by Darwin's half-cousin Francis Galton, was that Darwinism implied that because natural selection was apparently no longer working on "civilized" people it was possible for "inferior" strains of people (who would normally be filtered out of the gene pool) to overwhelm the "superior" strains, and voluntary corrective measures would be desirable — the foundation of eugenics.

[Both] a Darwinian 'left' and a Darwinian 'right' were in place before most people had grasped the Darwinian middle, which was where the maker was.[15]

In Darwin's day there was no rigid definition of the term "Darwinism", and it was used by opponents and proponents of Darwin's biological theory alike to mean whatever they wanted it to in a larger context. The ideas had international influence, and Ernst Haeckel developed what was known as Darwinismus in Germany, although, like Spencer Haeckel's "Darwinism" had only a rough resemblance to the theory of Charles Darwin, and was not centered on natural selection at all.

While the reaction against Darwin's ideas is nowadays often thought to have been widespread immediately, in 1886 Alfred Russel Wallace went on a lecture tour across the United States, starting in New York and going via Boston, Washington, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska to California, lecturing on what he called Darwinism without any problems.[16]

Other uses

The term Darwinism is often used in the United States by promoters of creationism, notably by leading members of the intelligent design movement, as an epithet to attack evolution as though it were an ideology (an "ism") of philosophical naturalism, or atheism.[17] For example, Phillip E. Johnson makes this accusation of atheism with reference to Charles Hodge's book What Is Darwinism?.[18] However, unlike Johnson, Hodge confined the term to exclude those like Asa Gray who combined Christian faith with support for Darwin's natural selection theory, before answering the question posed in the book's title by concluding: "It is Atheism."[19][20][21] Creationists use the term Darwinism, often pejoratively, to imply that the theory has been held as true only by Darwin and a core group of his followers, whom they cast as dogmatic and inflexible in their belief.[5] Casting evolution as a doctrine or belief bolsters religiously motivated political arguments to mandate equal time for the teaching of creationism in public schools.

However, Darwinism is also used neutrally within the scientific community to distinguish modern evolutionary theories from those first proposed by Darwin, as well as by historians to differentiate it from other evolutionary theories from around the same period. For example, Darwinism may be used to refer to Darwin's proposed mechanism of natural selection, in comparison to more recent mechanisms such as genetic drift and gene flow. It may also refer specifically to the role of Charles Darwin as opposed to others in the history of evolutionary thought — particularly contrasting Darwin's results with those of earlier theories such as Lamarckism or later ones such as the modern synthesis.

In the United Kingdom the term retains its positive sense as a reference to natural selection, and for example Richard Dawkins wrote in his collection of essays A Devil's Chaplain, published in 2003, that as a scientist he is a Darwinist.[22]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ John Wilkins (1998). "How to be Anti-Darwinian". TalkOrigins Archive. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/anti-darwin.html. Retrieved 2008-06-19. 
  2. ^ "Expelled Exposed: Why Expelled Flunks » …on what evolution explains". National Center for Science Education. http://www.expelledexposed.com/index.php/contest/on-what-evolution-explains. Retrieved 2008-12-22. 
  3. ^ based on an European Southern Observatory release (December 09, 2006). "Galactic Darwinism :: Astrobiology Magazine - earth science - evolution distribution Origin of life universe - life beyond :: Astrobiology is study of earth science evolution distribution Origin of life in universe terrestrial". http://www.astrobio.net/news/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2169&theme=Printer. Retrieved 2008-12-22. 
  4. ^ a b Joel Hanes. "What is Darwinism?". TalkOrigins Archive. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/darwinism.html. Retrieved 2008-06-19. 
  5. ^ a b Sullivan, M (2005). "From the Beagle to the School Board: God Goes Back to School". Impact Press. http://www.impactpress.com/articles/spring05/sullivanspring05.html. Retrieved 2008-09-18. 
  6. ^ a b Huxley, T.H. (April 1860). "ART. VIII.- Darwin on the origin of Species". Westminster Review. pp. 541–70. http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=A32&pageseq=29. Retrieved 2008-06-19. "What if the orbit of Darwinism should be a little too circular?" 
  7. ^ John Wilkins (1998). "How to be Anti-Darwinian". TalkOrigins Archive. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/anti-darwin.html. Retrieved 2008-06-27. 
  8. ^ Ruse, Michael (2003). Darwin and Design: Does Evolution Have a Purpose?. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 293. ISBN 0674016319. http://books.google.com/books?id=SHWaeRiRD-cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22michael+ruse%22+darwinism&as_brr=3&ei=SsmASKL-KKPujAGoxr29Aw&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U3SsNf1LQuIA6Ytad6taCFWR1IA8A#PPA293,M1. Retrieved 2008-07-18. 
  9. ^ Olivia Judson (July 15, 2008). "Let’s Get Rid of Darwinism". New York Times. http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/lets-get-rid-of-darwinism/. 
  10. ^ Sclater, Andrew (June 2006). "The extent of Charles Darwin’s knowledge of Mendel". Journal of Biosciences (Bangalore, India: Springer India / Indian Academy of Sciences) 31 (2): 191–193. doi:10.1007/BF02703910. http://www.springerlink.com/content/w112307246x77t37/. Retrieved 2009-01-03. 
  11. ^ Laurence Moran (1993). "Random Genetic Drift". TalkOrigins Archive. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/genetic-drift.html. Retrieved 2008-06-27. 
  12. ^ Browne 2002, p. 376-379
  13. ^ "The Huxley File § 4 Darwin's Bulldog". http://aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/guide4.html. Retrieved 2008-06-29. 
  14. ^ Browne 2002, p. 105-106
  15. ^ Gopnik 2009, p. 152.
  16. ^ "Evolution and Wonder - Understanding Charles Darwin - Speaking of Faith from American Public Media". http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/darwin/transcript.shtml. Retrieved 2007-07-27. 
  17. ^ Scott, Eugenie C. (2008), "Creation Science Lite: "Intelligent Design" as the New Anti-Evolutionism", in Godfrey, Laurie R.; Petto, Andrew J., Scientists Confront Creationism: Intelligent Design and Beyond, New York: W. W. Norton, pp. 72, ISBN 0-393-33073-7 
  18. ^ Johnson, Phillip E.. "What is Darwinism?". http://www.arn.org/docs/johnson/wid.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-04. 
  19. ^ Matthew, Ropp. "Charles Hodge and His Objection to Darwinism". http://www.theropps.com/papers/Winter1997/CharlesHodge.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-04. 
  20. ^ Hodge, Charles. "What is Darwinism?". http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19192/19192-8.txt. Retrieved 2007-01-04. 
  21. ^ Hodge, Charles (1874). What is Darwinism?. Scribner, Armstrong, and Company. OCLC 11489956. 
  22. ^ Sheahen, Laura. Religion: For Dummies. BeliefNet.com, interview about 2003 book.

References

External links


Translations: Darwinism
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - darwinisme

Nederlands (Dutch)
darwinisme

Français (French)
n. - darwinisme

Deutsch (German)
n. - Darwinismus (Lehre Darwins)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (βιολ.) δαρβινισμός

Italiano (Italian)
darwinismo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - darwinismo (m)

Русский (Russian)
дарвинизм

Español (Spanish)
n. - darvinismo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - darwinism

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
达尔文学说, 进化论

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 達爾文主義, 進化論

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 다윈 진화설

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ダーウィン説, ダーウィン説信奉

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الداروينيه, نظريه العالم داروين في أصل الحيوانات والنباتات‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תורת הברירה הטבעית, דרוויניזם‬


 
 
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