Philosophy
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection provides a wonderful scientific explanation of biological adaptation and diversity. The theory is wonderful. The process of evolution itself is torturous, blind, indifferent, and cruel.
And when you take a ruthless process, and mix it up with some extreme political and social ideology, what you get is the pseudo-scientific distortion of scientific evolution: social darwinism in its many forms, the most extreme version of which resulted in the infamous movement of eugenics, but don't blame the Nazis for this one. This idea came from the Brits, got instituted by the Americans, and only then did it make it back across the Atlantic to Germany.
Fortunately, as Andrew Marr explains in the second part of the fascinating documentary Darwin's Dangerous Idea, a better understanding of evolution, as well of ethical philosophy, is giving rise to a new, positive sense of eugenics, one in which individual choice and autonomy, without government imposition, is helping create a healthier and more prosperous world.
- What Is Evolution And Natural Selection?
I don't know if it's by design or circumstance, but (apart from the religious and ideological elements) part of the resistance to evolution has to do with the fact that a number of related but distinct concepts are normally conflated with each...
- Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Body & Soul
It took Darwin about twenty years to publish the theory that made him feel like he was confessing to a murder (God's perhaps?), but how did he come to articulate the theory in his own mind? His voyage in the HMS Beagle had a lot to do with it, certainly,...
- Darwin: The Most Revolutionary Scientist Of All Time
150 years ago today, Chuck Darwin published his famous On the Origin of Species, so it's appropriate to dedicate today's entry to the brilliance and imaginative power of this radical intellectual. In the following thought-provoking lecture, Richard...
- What Darwin Didn't Know
Darwin has become an icon of scientific virtue, not only because he sought naturalistic explanations for the biological phenomena around him, as well as the mechanisms through which nature, unaided by some supernatural force or agency, would gradually...
- Berkeley Groks
The half-hour program is equal parts newscast and freewheeling conversation between the two hosts, Ling and Lee, who cover the week’s developments in the scientific world with an approachable, funny, and at times downright irreverent style. Sample:...
Philosophy
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Born Equal
And when you take a ruthless process, and mix it up with some extreme political and social ideology, what you get is the pseudo-scientific distortion of scientific evolution: social darwinism in its many forms, the most extreme version of which resulted in the infamous movement of eugenics, but don't blame the Nazis for this one. This idea came from the Brits, got instituted by the Americans, and only then did it make it back across the Atlantic to Germany.
Fortunately, as Andrew Marr explains in the second part of the fascinating documentary Darwin's Dangerous Idea, a better understanding of evolution, as well of ethical philosophy, is giving rise to a new, positive sense of eugenics, one in which individual choice and autonomy, without government imposition, is helping create a healthier and more prosperous world.
Wow... we've come full circle :)
- What Is Evolution And Natural Selection?
I don't know if it's by design or circumstance, but (apart from the religious and ideological elements) part of the resistance to evolution has to do with the fact that a number of related but distinct concepts are normally conflated with each...
- Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Body & Soul
It took Darwin about twenty years to publish the theory that made him feel like he was confessing to a murder (God's perhaps?), but how did he come to articulate the theory in his own mind? His voyage in the HMS Beagle had a lot to do with it, certainly,...
- Darwin: The Most Revolutionary Scientist Of All Time
150 years ago today, Chuck Darwin published his famous On the Origin of Species, so it's appropriate to dedicate today's entry to the brilliance and imaginative power of this radical intellectual. In the following thought-provoking lecture, Richard...
- What Darwin Didn't Know
Darwin has become an icon of scientific virtue, not only because he sought naturalistic explanations for the biological phenomena around him, as well as the mechanisms through which nature, unaided by some supernatural force or agency, would gradually...
- Berkeley Groks
The half-hour program is equal parts newscast and freewheeling conversation between the two hosts, Ling and Lee, who cover the week’s developments in the scientific world with an approachable, funny, and at times downright irreverent style. Sample:...