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27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 3. Evolution

[theory that life results from natural selection]

23 ideas
Maybe bodies are designed by accident, and the creatures that don't work are destroyed [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield]
There is a gradual proceeding from the inanimate to animals, with no clear borderlines [Aristotle]
I don't see how mere moving matter can lead to the bodies of men and animals, and especially their seeds [Boyle]
It is inconceivable that unthinking matter could produce intelligence [Locke]
Men are related to animals, which are related to plants, then to fossils, and then to the apparently inert [Leibniz]
There is no abrupt transition from man to animal; only language has opened a gap [La Mettrie]
Small uninterrupted causes can have big effects [Rousseau]
Darwinian evolution is chance, with the destruction of bad results [Peirce]
Natural selection might well fill an animal's mind with pleasing thoughts rather than true ones [Peirce]
Enquirers think finding our origin is salvation, but it turns out to be dull [Nietzsche]
Darwin overestimates the influence of 'external circumstances' [Nietzsche]
The utility of an organ does not explain its origin, on the contrary! [Nietzsche]
Survival might undermine an individual's value, or prevent its evolution [Nietzsche]
A 'species' is a stable phase of evolution, implying the false notion that evolution has a goal [Nietzsche]
Cultural evolution is Lamarckian and fast, biological evolution is Darwinian and slow [Wilson,EO]
Over 99 percent of human evolution has been in the hunter-gatherer phase [Wilson,EO]
Mind involves fighting, fleeing, feeding and fornicating [Searle]
Darwin's idea was the best idea ever [Dennett]
All the evidence says evolution is cruel and wasteful, not intelligent [Pinker]
Intelligent Design says that every unexplained phenomenon must be design, by default [Pinker]
Our capabilities did not all evolve during the hunter gathering period [Goldie]
DNA mutation suggests humans and chimpanzees diverged 6.6 million years ago [Watson]