Hi all
One problem with the Darwin Black Box theory is that it postulates a particular outcome for evolution. As Ernst Mayr says:
Darwin does away with determinism. Laplace notoriously boasted that a complete knowledge of the current world and all its processes would enable him to predict the future to infinity. Darwin, by comparison, accepted the universality of randomness and chance throughout the process of natural selection.
That chance should play an important role in natural processes has been an unpalatable thought for many physicists. Einstein expressed this distaste in his statement, “God does not play dice.” Of course, as previously mentioned, only the first step in natural selection, the production of variation, is a matter of chance.
Despite the initial resistance by physicists and philosophers, the role of contingency and chance in natural processes is now almost universally acknowledged. Many biologists and philosophers deny the existence of universal laws in biology and suggest that all regularities be stated in probabilistic terms, as nearly all so-called biological laws have exceptions.
If one concludes that there are no natural laws in evolutionary biology, one must ask, on what can one then base biological theories? The view now widely adopted is that theories in evolutionary biology are based on concepts rather than laws, and this branch of science certainly has abundant concepts on which to base theories.
Let me just mention such concepts as natural selection, struggle for existence, competition, biopopulation, adaptation, reproductive success, female choice, and male dominance. I admit that some of these concepts can perhaps be converted, with a little effort, into pseudo-laws, but there is no question that such laws are something very different from the Newtonian natural laws.
Mayr, Ernst “Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought” in Scientific American, July, 2000
submitted by PLB
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