Skwim
Veteran Member
Compiled by Oliver Knevitt
"1. Survival of the Fittest
Now, this term is something that often gets used synonymously with natural selection. In fact, it wasn't actually coined by Darwin himself; it was first used by Herbert Spencer. . . . The problem with the phrase "survival of the fittest", in my view, is that it rather misrepresents the way that selection really works. This is because it isn't really the survival of the fittest organism that drives evolution. It's the death of the least fit organism.
2. Living fossil
This is another very appealing term. It's so appealing because for some so called living fossils really look like just that: like a sorcerer has breathed life into an inanimate fossil. Or that the fossil animal has been there all along, biding its time. However, it just doesn't reflect reality. No organism can survive without adapting.
3. Missing link
This is undoubtedly the worst term in general use. There are many, many fundamental problems with this term, . . . one the main problems is that a link implies a chain; a great chain of being, with the dumber animals at the bottom and clever man at the top. Yet, there is a much deeper reason why I'd like this term to be dead and buried. It is entirely perjorative. It is only used by those wishing to deinigrate evolution.
4. More evolved/less evolved
A lamprey is considered to be a more basal vertebrate than a human because it shares similar characteristics with what we expect the common ancestor of all vertebrates to have. We didn't evolve from a lamprey; we share a common ancestor that is just as distant from lampreys as it is from humans, it only looks a lot more like a lamprey. Strictly speaking, we are no more evolved than a lamprey. We are good at we do and lampreys are good at what they do.
5. Adaptation
The problem with using the word adaptation instead of trait or character is that it assumes that it got there via adaptionism. It's undeniably true that most important force that shapes the morphology of an organism is adaptation, i.e. evolving them so that they are better adapted to the task required. However, it is not the only force that shapes body parts or behaviours. Often, they are there because of constraints on evolution . . . ."
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P.Z. Myers adds a sixth.
"1. Survival of the Fittest
Now, this term is something that often gets used synonymously with natural selection. In fact, it wasn't actually coined by Darwin himself; it was first used by Herbert Spencer. . . . The problem with the phrase "survival of the fittest", in my view, is that it rather misrepresents the way that selection really works. This is because it isn't really the survival of the fittest organism that drives evolution. It's the death of the least fit organism.
2. Living fossil
This is another very appealing term. It's so appealing because for some so called living fossils really look like just that: like a sorcerer has breathed life into an inanimate fossil. Or that the fossil animal has been there all along, biding its time. However, it just doesn't reflect reality. No organism can survive without adapting.
3. Missing link
This is undoubtedly the worst term in general use. There are many, many fundamental problems with this term, . . . one the main problems is that a link implies a chain; a great chain of being, with the dumber animals at the bottom and clever man at the top. Yet, there is a much deeper reason why I'd like this term to be dead and buried. It is entirely perjorative. It is only used by those wishing to deinigrate evolution.
4. More evolved/less evolved
A lamprey is considered to be a more basal vertebrate than a human because it shares similar characteristics with what we expect the common ancestor of all vertebrates to have. We didn't evolve from a lamprey; we share a common ancestor that is just as distant from lampreys as it is from humans, it only looks a lot more like a lamprey. Strictly speaking, we are no more evolved than a lamprey. We are good at we do and lampreys are good at what they do.
5. Adaptation
The problem with using the word adaptation instead of trait or character is that it assumes that it got there via adaptionism. It's undeniably true that most important force that shapes the morphology of an organism is adaptation, i.e. evolving them so that they are better adapted to the task required. However, it is not the only force that shapes body parts or behaviours. Often, they are there because of constraints on evolution . . . ."
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6. Darwinism
We arent using Darwins model anymore; he had no accurate notion of how inheritance worked, for instance genes and alleles, the stuff of most modern theory, are not present anywhere in his works. Darwinian is also problematic. It does have a specific, technical meaning, but its often applied thoughtlessly to every process in evolution.
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While I don't see all of these as much of a problem, some, such as "missing link" and "Darwinism" do pop up with an irritating frequency.We arent using Darwins model anymore; he had no accurate notion of how inheritance worked, for instance genes and alleles, the stuff of most modern theory, are not present anywhere in his works. Darwinian is also problematic. It does have a specific, technical meaning, but its often applied thoughtlessly to every process in evolution.
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