Darwin

Latest Posts in Darwin

Evolution and Ethics: It’s Not an Oxymoron

Peter Corning

March 13, 2020

The evidence suggests that cooperation was the “master architect” of evolutionary complexity, especially in humankind. That’s why ethics is so important. The selfish gene model of evolution is a one-sided caricature. Darwin himself understood the important role of ethics in human evolution. The ethical implications of a fundamentally cooperative model of human evolution are obvious. Effective social cooperation depends on having a harmonious social relationship.

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World Views

Natural Selection: “It Isn’t Just for Breakfast Anymore”

Peter Corning

January 26, 2020

A sea of change is currently underway in our understanding of the evolutionary process, including especially our way of defining the core concept of natural selection.

The individualistic, gene-centered model of natural selection and evolution has constricted and distorted our understanding of the many different sources of causation in the natural world.

It is like looking into a very large room through a very small keyhole. If we adopt a more inclusive model of natural selection, we will then be able to view the entire room.

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Science

Peter Corning: The Wages of Synergy

Manny Frishberg

March 28, 2018

Timing is everything, in science just as much as in horseracing or playing the stock market. If Alfred Russell Wallace had published before Darwin, we would talk about Wallace’s Theory of Evolution today.

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World Views

The Evolution of “Zoon Politikon” (The Political Animal)

Peter Corning

December 19, 2017

Aristotle, it seems, got it right. Politics may have played a key role in human evolution as the classic primate pattern of male dominance hierarchies shifted to a pattern of consensual leadership for common goals and collective action.