Darwin’s Theory of Evolution:
Background, Achievement, Consequences
Ashoke Mukhopadhyay
BODHODAYA MANCHA KOLKATA 700113
In the last one hundred and fifty years since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species, sciences in general and biology in particular have changed tremendously. Not only in terms of powerful tools and new discoveries, but also in terms of the overall theoretical framework and organization of scientific knowledge. With all that, Darwin's theory of evolution remains the single most important theory in modern biology. Any attempt to understand biology can soon decay into chaos without the idea of evolutionary history. An extreme reductionist approach would want to make all biology ultimately physics and chemistry. Yet, living forms are more than a bunch of chemicals. The opposite approach would want us to believe that there is an extra "vital" spirit in living forms. Between these ludicrous extremes, if biology has to make sense, we need Darwin. As Theodosius Dobzhansky, the famous evolutionary biologist, put it, "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution".
Every true biologist, whether he or she works with molecular biology or in the organismic or population level, knows what Dobzhansky meant. They are all aware of the fundamental unity of life irrespective of its multitudes of manifestation. They see, on a daily basis, that the basic building blocks of life are very similar in structure and function across living organisms—some solutions nature found on the way was too good to be confined to a single organism. All these and much more can fall in place only in the light of organic evolution. Yet, this powerful theory remains the most slandered and misrepresented of scientific theories. Forget those who pervert it deliberately, confusion remains even among the learned or scientifically literate section of our society. How often have we heard about monkeys turning into humans being attributed to Darwin. But then this very same people who ridicule Darwin on monkeys have no qualms in using his "survival of the fittest" while justifying greed and plunder or war and destruction. Even after a century and a half of the Origin, a mere mention of Darwin's name can still divide people.
This shows the dismal situation of scientific literacy all over the world, even in industrially advanced countries. Theory of evolution should have been part of the upbringing of any enlightened human being; however, the sad situation is that even in the United States, right outside the great universities where the most advanced biological research is going on, where the entire human genome is being deciphered and mapped, the large section of the common public is blissfully unaware of what the theory really means. The situation is naturally much more pathetic in a less developed country like India. A couple of years ago, in the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, under the very noses of some of the best biologists in India, somebody had the temerity to give a talk on a "theory of devolution". Though all ideological and scientific questions had been anticipated and answered by Darwin and his successors, this level of ignorance is something he would not have fathomed.
The difficulty in communicating the theory of evolution is not necessarily with the complexity of ideas involved, but how those ideas come in conflict with existing prejudices. Not only the prejudices that are associated with a lack of proper education, but also the prejudices that come precisely from an education. The conflict this theory has with the existing mode of thinking in the prevailing presentation of sciences, even today, also comes in the way to a better appreciation of the theory. To communicate evolution one has to expose and address these prejudices, something often overlooked in many discussions of Darwin and evolution. It is in this context that a new book on the subject may justify its appearance. Here is such a book in which Ashoke Mukopadhyay has made an effort to address some of these limitations.
This book attempts to give an introduction to the theory of evolution and Darwin in a comprehensive manner. The author traces the intellectual and social milieu in which Darwin developed the theory of evolution, discusses the theory and subsequent theory on descent of man briefly, deals with philosophical and social implication of what the theory achieved, and finally highlights some aspects of the man Darwin which is worthy of emulating. This book brings all these diverse topics under one cover in an accessible format. The author has followed the ideological debate before and since Darwin and presented the gist for the benefit of any curious mind even if not familiar with the technical jargons of biology or philosophy.
Present day confusions such as social Darwinism and intelligent design, that one hears even from learned section in our society, are traced back to its idealist or class roots. Using simple and elegant arguments, he brings forth a very profound understanding of the concepts associated with the theory of evolution. An excellent bibliography from ancient classics to modern treatises on evolution and philosophical development is given at the end for the benefit of those who want to pursue the subject further.
Often formal education in science ignores the evolutionary and epistemological aspects of knowledge. Even science students and practitioners of science would only benefit from Mukopadhyay’s attempts to bring such aspects in a highly accessible form, without losing their bearing in the depth of the subject. He discusses how science and logic, and the emergent world view that is called philosophy, were influenced or even shaped by Darwin and his theory. He skilfully traces the development of formal logic that hitherto ruled science, and that even today limits the thinking of many practitioners of science. The jewel on the crown of formal logic is Newtonian mechanics which as we know had been enormously successful. But from the scientific and philosophical point of view, the author argues, formal logic had exhausted itself, and a new dialectical logic that comprehends nature in motion and interconnection was needed. The history of development of changes in these outlooks is briefly narrated in this book with a great insight.
A word about its author may be appropriate here. Ashoke Mukopadhyay, as I have personally known for some time past, is an indefatigable warrior for the cause of a new science movement in our country. His deep, thought provoking, and well informed essays have inspired a generation of science activists, including this present writer. He has also travelled across various districts of Bengal and outside, speaking to students—be it the research scholars of IIT, Kharagpur, or school going children in the remote villages—about the epistemological and logical aspects of science through inspiring stories of scientists and major breakthroughs in science. It is heartening to see at least some of it is now appearing in book form.
Darwin thought his The Origin as a long argument. Here Ashoke Mukopadhyay is also continuing that argument. I earnestly hope, many would join in a healthy debate that would eventually lead us closer to that heaven of freedom which the great poet Tagore had envisaged: "Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action—Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."
[Image from : http://www.crystalinks.com ]
