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WAS DARWIN RIGHT? ... Even though some theorists argue that Darwin was right, others are highly critical of his findings and assumptions. Smith (1993) called the theory outlined in On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection (Darwin, 1859) the main unifying idea in biology. ... Therefore this essay will take the stance that even though Darwins contribution is immense and correct in some parts; the major flaws in other parts of his theory seemingly reflect his inherent lack of knowledge at the time, which thus shows that Darwin did not get it all right. ... Through his theory of NS Darwin wanted not only to explain change over time in life-forms, but also the particular way in which it changes (Buss, 1999). ...
A central feature, which validated Darwins theory of NS and thus proposed that he was right was his ability to not only document his ideas exhaustively but also to ground them in a powerful theoretical framework. In modern terms, Darwin understood the process of NS as a substrate neutral, algorithmic process applicable to an extremely wide range of phenomena and capable of achieving immense feats by slow accumulation over large extents of time and space (Ruse, 2002). ... It seems that evolutionary biologists do not deny that evolution like annealing works; what is controversial is the issue of whether Darwin was right in his radical vision of how and why it works (Strachan & Read, 2002). ... For example, Darwin did emphasise repeatedly that evolution is slow and gradual; Gould and Eldredge (1977) thought that Darwin was advocating the theory of phyletic gradualism instead of PE. It is likely as Dawkins (1982) argues that Darwin meant something different by gradual evolution. ... Instead Darwin has said things that sound quite like PE such as (from On the Origin of Species)
Many species once formed never undergo any further change… and the periods, during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured by years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retain the same form (Darwin, 1859, Chapter VI). ... Darwins own statements consistently suggest that he was talking bout the adaptation, rather than speciation when describing evolution as slow and gradual which is contrary to Goulds claim that Darwin was wrong (Ridley, 1996).
Contemporary biologists believe that NS may not be the only driving force or even the most pertinent driving force in evolution as advocated by Darwin, which challenges his theory. ... (Graver & Wen-Hsiung, 2000)
On the surface, Darwins theory of natural selection in plausible, and likely more so in Darwins time which makes him right, when nothing was known about genetics, DNA, or cell biology (Arthur, 2000). ... It seems Darwin termed selection solely in an attempt to rationalise the idea of an intelligent act. ... Therefore as a result Darwin was wrong in assuming a connection between the two mechanisms that’s if NS exists in any such form (Arthur, 2000). ... More recently however, these experiments have been shown to be entirely consistent with the modern Darwinian concept of adaptation by natural selection on randomly occurring variation and thus proving that Darwin was right (Sniegowski & Lenski, 1995). ... However the idea of blending inheritance was perhaps the most potentially serious problem Darwin faced since the theory was known to be wrong.
Approximate Word count = 2620
Approximate Pages = 10.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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