Summary
Title: The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin's Soul
Author: Richard Morris
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
ISBN: 071674094X
Pro:
• Annotated bibliography with list of useful web sites
• Strong explanation of both evolutionary theory in general and the controversies
Con:
• Some repetition
Description:
• Analysis of controversies in evolutionary theory
• Explains what biologists disagree about and what they agree on
Book Review
There is no disputing that evolution is a fact, but there are plenty of details of the operation of evolution about which there can be dispute. In this, evolution is far from unique — dispute, disagreement, and conflict are fundamental aspects of science which most non-scientists never see. Everyone else usually ends up seeing the consensus and the things scientists agree on, but behind the scenes scientists debate quite a lot. Even when agreement on something is reached, one answer typically leads to several more questions which people can debate.
Richard Morris’ book The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin's Soul is an exploration of some of the debates that occur within evolutionary theory. It’s more than that, though, because in order to understand disagreements about evolution, one already has to understand the basics of evolution as well; thus, a significant portion of the book is devoted to explaining what evolution is, how it proceeds, and what sorts of evidence we have for it today.
In some ways, Morris’ books is almost worth having just for that explanation. It’s a lucid and jargon-free account of evolutionary theory and the evolutionary process that should help most people come to grips with something they should have learned in high school, but due to the religious climate in America probably didn’t. There is some repetition here which could annoy readers who already have a lot of familiarity with the subject, but those with less experience will probably appreciate Morris’ effort to emphasize key points.
Consistent with the title, much of the Morris’ book is focused on evolutionary biologists themselves — their ideas, their influence, and the sometimes heated debates they have with each other. Actually, “heated” might be an understatement because the vituperative, emotional, and downright nasty things that have been printed in respected science journals sometimes look more like internet flame wars than reasoned, scientific disagreement.
The key players here are just who one might expect: Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, Richard Lewontin, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, John Maynard Smith, etc. Morris seems to spend far more time on debates between Stephen Jay Gould and just about everyone else in the world of biology than on any other disputes; that may be understandable given Gould’s writings, but I would have liked to see more.
Particularly ironic — and unfortunate — about the nastiness of some of these debates is that they aren’t over fundamental and substantive aspect of evolutionary theory. No one disagrees about the really important things, and as Morris makes clear, many of the disagreements are over particular interpretations about facts which are accepted.
- “Sometimes they disagree because they view evolution from different perspectives. Dawkins is very close to being a pure reductionist. Gould, on the other hand, looks for complex patterns in nature. They sometimes disagree because they look at evolution from different viewpoints and because each apparently thinks his viewpoint is superior to the other’s.”
Gould isn’t the only one who looks for larger patterns and “emergent properties” in the complexity of evolution. Gould and others don’t dispute that natural selection occurs or even that it is the primary driving engine of evolution. They do, however, dispute that it is the only driving force in evolution. They see other factors at work which need to be given serious attention in order to best understand how the evolutionary process proceeds.
Evolution may be a fact, but evolutionary theory is not a closed subject. It’s open to revision and subject to constant testing, rethinking, and critique. Morris’ book helps explain how and why this is so by using important examples that are being worked on even now by biologists and other scientists around the world.
