Darwinism past and present
is it past its "sell-by" date?
pp. 41-51
in: Aldo Fasolo (ed), The theory of evolution and its impact, Berlin, Springer, 2012Abstract
The year 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, and also the 150th anniversary of his great book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. No one who takes science seriously would begrudge Darwin his fame, but there is a major question that is worth asking. Do we honor Darwin as an important figure in the history of science, but not necessarily as one whose thinking still speaks to us today? Or are there aspects of Darwinian thinking that are still important today? Is it possible, desirable indeed, to be a Darwinian in the sense found in the Origin?
