1. Evolutionary Theory and Its Problems:
Lecture 8/ Term II
Evolutionary Theory and Its Problems:
Implications of the Idea of Evolution for the Understanding of Human Nature

3. George Combe,
Although soon prove to be scientifically wrong, phrenology remained very strong in the public
domain
First edition, 1828

4. Central reason for success of phrenology:
phrenological doctrine denied original sin and intrinsic moral failing. Instead all individuals had the potential to gradually improve themselves as they learned to identify, regulate, and master the temperametn/character with which they each had been endowed by God. It encouraged individuals to play an active role in shaping their own destiny. It promised a reform programme for the whole of Victorian society.
However, it was also one of the foundations of racicm. Was often interpreted as foundation for racism

5. Theory of Evolution – ‘co-discovered’ by
Charles Darwin, 1809 – 1882
Alfred Russel Wallace,

6. Darwin in the 1840s, after his voyage and his marriage to Emma Wedgewood

7. Darwin’s voyage on the HMS Beagle 1831-1836

8. God’s design and creation of the world can be seen in the general happiness, or well-being, that is evident in the physical and social order of things.
Book is used by creationists today!

9. Darwin adopts widely discussed evolutionary theory of geology widely discussed at the time

10. Darwin’s Finches

11. Darwin wished to challenge Lamarck
The first to use the term ‘biology’ in our modern sense.
First to come up with a coherent evolutionary theory with which Darwin disagreed:
the environment gives rise to changes in animals
Change was dependent on the will of the organisms – ultimatly directed by God.
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (1744 – 1829)

12. Essay on the Principle of Populations (1798)
1803 edition read by
Darwin
‘The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man…’
‘ongoing struggle of existence over subsistence ’ -- according to Malthus God directed
Note: term’ survival of the fittest’ (not from Malthus but Herbert Spencer who read Darwin. Darwin then used it in later editions of his book.
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766 – 1834

13. Adaptation and
‘natural selection’

14. Three central elements of Darwin’s argument:
in every population of organisms, there are differences – or variations between individuals.
Such variations ensure that certain organisms are better suited to triumph in the struggle for existence than other organisms.
Finally, better suited --or more ‘fit’ – organisms will produce more viable offspring then those which are less suited. And the characteristics of fitter organisms are therefore selectively passed on to the following generation.
Overall: Nature selects certain characteristics without any foresight or conscious design. Over a number of generations the characteristics of fitter organisms comet to dominate population, and hence the characteristics of a species change.

15. The Geographical Distribution of Animals (1876)
The Malay Archipelago (1869)
On the Laws which has Introduced the Introduction of New Species’
Also gets the final clues for evolutionary change from Malthus (and his belief in utilitarianism)
‘On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitly from
the Original Type’ - paper sent to Darwin who realised
that Wallace is up to exactly the same thing
Darwin rushes to public Origin of Species, 1859
Did Darwin prevail because he was better connected, richer and socially more influential than the working class scholar Wallace?
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 – 1913)

16. Crucial here is: Darwin at first avoids evolutions of humans in Origin of Species
because of race/religious debate: Were Humans derive from single species or from a several ancestors – still debated today? (monogenist- pologenist debate at the time, particular in regard to race; abolitianists tended to be monogenisists; supporters of slavery were generally poligenisists)
But not Wallace! He comes up with compromise:
The Origin of Human Races and the Antiquity of Man Deduced from the Theory of Natural Selection (1864)
Humans, unlike other organisms had experiences, therefore he advocates two distinct stages in human evolution.
In the first stage, human ancestors had evolved just as any other creature according to the principles of natural selection. Thus individuals who carried favourable variations in the constant struggle for existences survived, their form forms continued to modify.
But once the intellectual capabilities on the human species form were well developed, natural selection would not longer act on the human physical form and structure and it would remain essentially unchanged. At some point, humans develop due to their conscious decision making!

17. 1st publication on human evolution -- on the basis of comparative anatomy
But how to explain human morals?
Human dignity (morals etc) was not inherited but needed to be gained through consciously searching ‘good’ and ‘evil’
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825 – 1895)

18. 1871
1872
Darwin’s offers his own view on the raging debate on ‘human evolution’ in two, by now, famous publications

19. Central claims:
(based on comparative anatomy of mental structures of animals and humans)
He argued that because animals such as apes and humans shared the same brain and nervous system with humans they shared the underlying psychic/mental state.
Thus, if an animal exhibited a particular behaviour that had a human counterpart, he assume that the underlying psychic state is the same as in humans.
But can we simply assume this? Can we every know?
Why problematic? Because these assumptions are based on his observation of the psychic state of humans in his own society.
He simply anthropomorphised the animal world, that is, he extended what were then described as human qualities and character traits to the animal world (including ‘hope’!)
(note: this is what neuroscience continues to do today; see the very clever and fun critique by Raymond Tallis, himself a famous neuroscientist, in his ‘Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity’ (2011)

20. Darwin transfers his ideas of natural selection to the study of Man:
‘The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is certainly one of degree and not of kind.’
‘…the senses and the intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, &c, of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals.’

21. Suggests 4 stage development:
Organisms develop social instincts (a major discussion at the time!) causing them to take pleasure in company of others. They bond.
(Can be best observed in the expressions of babies)
Animals develop intellect to recall instances when social instincts were unsatisfied in order to satisfy stronger urges (sexual drive, hunger etc.)(influence of utiliarianism!)
Development of humans enable setting up codified principles of behaviour
At some point habit becomes the conduct of individuals; they act according to society’s norms (becomes their ‘second’ nature)
universal instincts in the expressions of babies

22. Expressions are not unique to humans according to Darwin –compares expressions in man/animals
Claim:
Consciences and moral obligations ultimately derived from persistent social instincts which existed in both animals and humans. Therefore, he can claims for a continuum between animals and humans. (Even religious sentiments existed in animals according to Darwin!)
difference to Wallace: Wallace saw no continuum between animals and humans in evolution