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Evolution: The Modern Synthesis

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Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was a famous English evolutionary biologist and humanist. (He wrote books like RELIGION WITHOUT REVELATION, as well as the forward to Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man.) This 1942 book was one of the prime statements of the "Neo-Darwinian" or "Synthetic" theory of evolution, which combines Darwinian Natural Selection with Mendelian genetics. "Mendelian analysis ... together with selection, explains the progressive mechanism of evolution." Yet "Neither mutation nor selection alone is creative of anything important in evolution; but the two in conjunction are creative."

Huxley states, "By Darwinism I imply that blend of induction and deduction which Darwin was the first to apply to the study of evolution." Concerning Natural Selection, "In a broad sense it covers all cases of differential survival: but from the evolutionary point of view it covers only the differential transmission of inheritable variations."

Huxley's considerable literary style is evident throughout the book: "To continue our metaphor, the offer made by a mutation to the species is not necessarily the final offer."

Huxley is (shades of Teilhard) a believer in evolutionary "progress." Although "All that natural selection can ensure is survival. It does not ensure progress, or maximum advantage," "evolution may perfectly well include progress without being progresive as a whole." And "we are justified in calling the trends which have led to (Man's) development progressive."

He ends on the positive note, "The future of progressive evolution is the future of man."

This is an essential work for anyone interested in the development of evolutionary theory.

"Evolution: The Modern Synthesis" is a staple of evolutionary teaching today, but I sure don't understand why. It has the same problem the O.J. Simpson prosecution case had - a big pile of facts with no unifying thread, just a wandering narrative that has no apparent theme. More disturbing, Huxley cited Sir Ronald Fisher's "Genetical Theory of Natural Selection" heavily and never acknowledged Fisher's warning, as stated in the opening sentence of his book, "Natural Selection is not evolution."

The writing style is readable enough but is not engaging. As a source of interesting nature trivia it is passable, but the book fails to deliver on the promise of the title. There is no synthesis, just an attempt at reconciling disparate theories of the time.