Darwin\'s Untimely Burial\" by Stephen

¶ … Darwin's Untimely Burial" by Stephen J. Gould.

The topic concerns Darwin's theories of evolution and natural selection as explicated by Stephen J. Gould in his book, Ever Since Darwin. The specific focus is the fourth chapter, entitled "Darwin's Untimely Burial." In this chapter, Gould responds to arguments and corollaries presented by Tom Bethell, who holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection has disproved itself as a result of a logical error in argument. Gould uses his essay not as much to refute Bethell's claims of faulty logic, but rather to prove that, within Darwin's flawed argument, there remains a core of truth.

Bethell's first argument then entails that Darwin was essentially misled by his own lack of logical reasoning when constructing his theory of natural selection. Specifically, the author draws attention to the inherent tautology of the phrase "survival of the fittest," which basically defines fitness in terms of survival, and furthermore entails that those who survive, survive, which is an empty statement and not scientifically valid.

The transition to Bethell's second argument is achieved by a summary of Darwin's theory relating to pigeon breeding, and how this correlates with natural selection. Gould argues that Darwin's focus is on artificial selection for breeding purposes, according to which "fittest" acquires a different meaning to survival. In terms of breeding the term relates to predetermined, desirable traits, rather than a natural inclination towards strength of constitution.

Bethell's second argument is then that, because there is in nature no independent criterion relating to fitness, any argument for natural selection becomes tautological and scientifically invalid.

Bethell offers two corollaries for his argument. The first relates to the concept and nature of natural selection. The author questions natural selection as a creative force when fitness means only survival, as it only offers an explanation for greater numbers of a species and not for how the species changes over the millennia. Secondly Bethell argues against the propensity of Darwin and his contemporaries to summarily compare natural processes with the artificial selection used by breeders. This, according to the author, appears to be the result of a cultural paradigm of "industrial capitalism," which saw all change as inherently progressive.

Gould opens his first argument by admitting that Bethell's theory correlate well with current technical writings on natural selection. Indeed, many of these focus on the numbers of survivors rather than their differentiation. Gould however continues to state that nature is hardly submissive to computer manipulation, and that while the superiority of a certain animal may be expressed as differential survival, it is not defined by it. Survival is then a result of fitness rather than its definition.

Gould's second argument relates to the environment in which survival takes place. Fitness for survival then is also a response to changing environments. The greater the ability of an animal to adapt to its new environment, the greater its chances of survival, or indeed its "fitness'.