Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
1.2
Random man
The term 'Darwinism' nowadays no longer refers to the original
theory set out by Darwin but to evolutionary synthesis. Species
evolve in this context due to random mutations of DNA, which
produce advantages for certain individuals in using the environ-
ment. They are selected therefore owing to their more rapid mul-
tiplication. It is a question of simplification, which eliminates the
fundamental aspects of Darwin's thought. His topic
On the Origin
of Species
(1859) puts forward a theory explaining the transforma-
tion of species, but also questions what a species actually is. The
word 'origin' must be understood as meaning 'a mechanism gener-
ating the species' and not 'chronological origin' in a history of liv-
ing forms, which is not what Darwin meant. He first of all
considered the definition of 'species' and its significance. What he
said about this is very surprising and runs counter to common
sense. He began by defending a nominalist vision. He asserted that
species do not actually exist in nature, but are abstract entities
created by the classifier by arbitrarily grouping living forms
together, depending on his subjective appreciation of them.
Darwin's nominalist position is nowadays totally suppressed or
considered as an error of his youth corrected by the adherents of
evolutionary synthesis (Mayr, 1993). As we shall see, it is this most
revolutionary and most fertile aspect of his thought that contains
the germ of a general theory of living beings. In contrast, genetics
is not nominalist but is founded on the reality of the species.
Evolutionary synthesis is thus forced synthesis between profoundly
contradictory elements, which leads to a theoretical and experi-
mental contradiction (Kupiec, 1999).
The special fields of both Bernard and Darwin have found their
way into the realms of modern science, but it is unusual for the two
to be brought together. Their individual areas of research seem very
separate. Bernard's is concerned with the way the organism func-
tions internally and argues for absolute determinism, while Darwin's
concerns the organism's relationships with its external environment,
