[ExI] What Darwin Got Wrong?

[Dan]

This is true -- there are plenty of "guys trying to second-guess Darwin this long after his original publication" and "carefully read[ing] what Darwin originally said" often cures much of that. I'm not sure that's the case with this book.

For the record, too, I'm not a big Jerry Fodor groupie. What should matter here is who is a greater or lesser light, but whether the light actually reveals an important facts. I'm only a few pages into the book, so I can't say at this point whether there's much to say. (Let's not forget, too, Fodor has a co-author.:)

Regards,

Dan


----- Original Message ----
From: spike <spike66 at att.net>
To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Sent: Tue, June 1, 2010 5:03:54 PM
Subject: Re: [ExI] What Darwin Got Wrong?

> > ...On Behalf Of Dan
> > Subject: [ExI] What Darwin Got Wrong?
> > 
> > http://www.amazon.com/What-Darwin-Wrong-Jerry-Fodor/dp/0374288798
> > 
> > Any of you read this one? Comments? ... Regards, Dan
> 
> Hi Dan thanks.  From the Amazon.com editorial reviews:
> 
> ... I see no logical fallacy in Darwin's reasoning.  After 
> reading the passage in OoS, we can easily envision Darwin 
> pondering these effects to great length... spike

Dan, there has emerged a body of literature of guys trying to second-guess
Darwin this long after his original publication.  Perhaps the biggest
contribution these later writers make is in leading the student to go back
and carefully read what Darwin originally said.  Example creationists like
to loosely paraphrase (*very loosely*) Darwin's admittedly odd comment about
possibly convergent habits of bears and whales in the bottom of the eighth
paragraph under the section ON THE ORIGIN AND TRANSITION OF ORGANIC BEINGS
WITH PECULIAR HABITS AND STRUCTURE.

If you read it in the original, Darwin wasn't actually saying whales evolved
from bears, even though later creationist writers have suggested that is
what he meant.

If the readers go back to Darwin's original work, Fodor is the lesser light
which has guided the seeker to the greater light, and has contributed to the
scientific understanding.  Most of what Steven Jay Gould has done for me is
to serve as that lesser light.

spike
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