Term Papers on Evolution

Term Paper Title	Evolution
# of Words	1076
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.3

Evolution

Evolution and philosophy have a relationship as old as the idea of evolution itself. This is a partly due to the fact that science and philosophy only separated about the time evolutionary theories were being first proposed, but also because - especially in the Darwinian context - evolution was opposed to many cherished philosophical doctrines.

The first main criticisms of evolution lay in the idea that species were eternal types, and so by definition species could not change. More recently, criticisms have rested on the notion of science itself, that evolution fails to meet the standards of true science, views that also were expressed at the time of Darwin and earlier. Evolution is sometimes criticized for not being a predictive science, and for not having natural laws. This relates to the issue of whether science should be like, but the two issues raise a more general matter. It goes to the question whether explanations have to make use of natural laws, and just what are explanations anyway?

The idea is that if the thing to be explained is a logical, deductive, consequence of the premises and the universal laws, then you have explained it. Once you have a theory of this form, then you can predict that a phenomenon will occur if the initial conditions are right, based on the universal laws of physics, chemistry, etc: Initial Condition and Universal Law Ž Observed Phenomenon.

The prediction is a deductive consequence of a true theory and proper measurements. Since evolution cannot make predictions of this kind, and in fact any outcome is compatible with the theory, its critics say that evolution is not a complete science.

Science is often said to be governed by laws. Any set of laws are ideal simplifications. In order to predict where a planet is going to be in 10,000 years, you have to ignore may things, such as the very small bodies, the influence of distant stars and galaxies, and so forth. And it works, to a degree. But that degree is still real. You may only be off a few meters, but you will be off, due to these ignored complications. Physical systems of this kind are stable, in that the initial conditions do not greatly affect the outcome.

Evolution is not like these systems. It is highly sensitive to the initial conditions and the boundary conditions that arise during the course of evolution. You cannot predict with any reasonable degree of accuracy what mutations will arise, which genotypes will recombine, and what other events will perturb the way species develop over time. Moreover, the so-called 'laws' of genetics and other biological rules are not laws. They are exceptional. For every law, right down to the 'central dogma' of molecular genetics, there is at least one exception.

And yet, we know the properties of many biological processes and systems well enough to predict what they will do in the absence of any other influences. This is proven in the lab daily. So, in this way, we have in biology the extreme end of the continuum of what we have in physics at the other end. The difference is one of degree, not kind. And more and more, physicists are uncovering systems that are similarly unstable and sensitive. You cannot predict in physics what any small numb...

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