What Darwin Got Wrong 1St Edition Edition

by Jerry Fodor (Author),‎ Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini (Author)

40 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0374288792

ISBN-10: 0374288798

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What Darwin Got Wrong is a remarkable book, one that dares to challenge the theory of natural selection as an explanation for how evolution works—a devastating critique not in the name of religion but in the name of good science.

Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a distinguished philosopher and a scientist working in tandem, reveal major flaws at the heart of Darwinian evolutionary theory. Combining the results of cutting-edge work in experimental biology with crystal-clear philosophical arguments, they mount a reasoned and convincing assault on the central tenets of Darwin’s account of the origin of species. The logic underlying natural selection is the survival of the fittest under changing environmental pressure. This logic, they argue, is mistaken, and they back up the claim with surprising evidence of what actually happens in nature. This is a rare achievement—a concise argument that is likely to make a great deal of difference to a very large subject. What Darwin Got Wrong will be controversial. The authors’ arguments will reverberate through the scientific world. At the very least they will transform the debate about evolution and move us beyond the false dilemma of being either for natural selection or against science.

What Darwin Got Wrong

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The authors of this scattershot treatise believe in evolution, but think that the Darwinian model of adaptationism—that random genetic mutations, filtered by natural selection, produce traits that enhance fitness for a particular biological niche—is fatally flawed. Philosopher Fodor and molecular-biologist-turned-cognitive-scientist Piattelli-Palmarini, at the University of Arizona, launch a three-pronged attack (which drew fire when Fodor presented their ideas in the London Review of Books in 2007). For one thing, according to the authors, natural selection contains a logical fallacy by linking two irreconcilable claims: first, that creatures with adaptive traits are selected, and second, that creatures are selected for their adaptive traits. The authors present an ill-digested assortment of scientific studies suggesting there are forces other than adaptation (some even Lamarckian) that drive changes in genes and organisms . Then they advance a densely technical argument that natural selection can't coherently distinguish between adaptive traits and irrelevant ones. Their most persuasive, and engaging, criticism is that evolutionary theory is just tautological truisms and historical narratives of how creatures came to be. Overall, the scientific evidence and philosophical analyses the authors proffer are murky and underwhelming. Worse, their highly technical treatment renders their argument virtually incomprehensible to lay readers. (Feb.)
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From Booklist

Remaining staunchly atheist all the while, philosopher Fodor and cognitive scientist Piattelli-Palmarini challenge Darwinism more effectively than the entire creationist/intelligent-design movement has. Their short, deliberate, and—for readers consulting (and reconsulting) their dictionaries about the philosophical and scientific vocabulary the authors decline to dumb down—slow-reading tract lays out biological and conceptual arguments against natural selection. Natural selection as the driver of speciation has become decreasingly explanatory as research continues to appreciate the complexity of internal and external processes impinging on development. For one thing, inherent physical limitations of developing organisms nullify blind selection; adapt as they may, pigs will never grow wings. Conceptually, natural selection is faulty because it necessarily implies intentionality (selection is made by something), never mind that how something with adaptive effect is chosen is utterly elusive logically. There is a great deal more to Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini’s arguments, which ordinary general readers won’t be able to articulate afterward but will gratefully refer others—and themselves—to again and again. Many may find this the hardest, absolutely essential reading they’ve ever done. --Ray Olson

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Product details

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1St Edition edition (February 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0374288798
ISBN-13: 978-0374288792
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
Average Customer Review: 40 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #127,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #38 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution > Organic
- #486 in Books > Textbooks > Science & Mathematics > Biology & Life Sciences
- #672 in Books > Science & Math > History & Philosophy

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nashari

Informative debate, yet not so sure about the conclusion

February 9, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Although after the first chapter I was going to quit reading, I continued and I'm happy I did it. The aggressive tone of the authors may wash up your motivation when you first start reading. Also you immediately understand that you can't read this book as a novel but more like studying a textbook. If you manage to ignore these and give it some time, then you'll enjoy an educational discussion. I'm just interested in biology but have no formal education in that field. After books like Selfish gene and Ernst Mayer articles, this book helped me having a broader insight into the subject. Not being a biologist every single argument of this book (Free rider traits, Plasticity, transitivity, the loop in adaptationism and ...) seemed convincing to me, yet after talking about them with my biologist colleagues, seemed to me that many of these topics were already in debate. Personally I found this book informative and to some good extent convincing, yet I'm not a biologist and I need to read more of these genre.

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John Hunter

What Darwin Got Wrong

October 1, 2010

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I found the text somewhat difficult to plow through at first. This is definitely an easier read for someone with a strong background in behavioral science, rather than in the wet sciences. Drawing on lessons from the Skinnerian model of behavior, Fodor and Palmarini embark on a journey to show not that the science behind evolution is incorrect, but that the rationale behind the conclusions from that science is faulty. Highlighting areas of evidence where adaptationism is simply not applicable to the overall scheme of evolution, Fodor and Palmarini argue that natural selection has provided no more than a historical narrative of what was and is rather than acting as a descriptive mechanism of the generation of phenotypic traits. They argue that the ecologic niche an organism occupies may be nothing more than circumstantially linked to the phenotypic outcome of the organism rather than being causative to that phenotype. One area of evidence they provide for their argument is in the inability of natural selection to distinguish between traits that provide fitness as opposed to accompanying traits that may not add to the organisms fitness in that ecologic niche. The authors also review newer data from the realm of molecular biology to illustrate the endogenous constraints on random mutation that exist within the organisms biochemical structure. I found this work interesting from a number of viewpoints. First, I am not used to philosophers engaging in the mechanism of science to the depth that these authors attempt to do. This personally, has provided fresh insight into the ramifications of analyzing data from a different perspective. It also has highlighted for me an undercurrent of fear of confrontation within the scientific community as "Holy Icons", like natural selection, are questioned for their legitimacy and validity.

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Collin Brendemuehl

Courage

June 15, 2010

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The premise of the book is a simple one: Natural selection does not work. It is not an adequate explanation for the whole of the process. As it came to be a functional system it found its practical incarnation in the efforts of B. F. Skinner. But the failings of Skinner's system - that is has exogenic requirements - evidences the failure of the natural selection model.

In theology, and in philosophy, the term teleology makes for a good equivalent to exogenic. That is, there is something outside the system guiding the system. Though we might use teleology in terms of ends, the teleological process arrives at ends known or unknown through a guided process. (We will refer to the authors, as did Jerry Coyne in his response[1]) F&P emphasize this requirement as their most important criticism of natural selection.

The companion term, and probably much clearer to the reader, is their "selection-for" argument, one that they pursue like a feline after a mouse. But much more could have been written on this issue. It goes beyond simple directionality and exposes one of the naturalist's greatest challenges: Why? Still, I continue to wonder if the mechanisms of genetics might suffer the same fate given that we have somehow arrived at our current level of complexity and the presence of free riders that seem to set a course for development[2].

The work reminds one of the old neo-Darwinists who saw genetics driving everything. Though they are not quite so mechanistic as the old neo-Darwinists, they do attempt to cash out with this approach. They are clear when they reject the principle that "nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution"[3] and accept the alternative, that "[4]nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of developmental biology".

The beginning of the book contains some admissions which are worth noting: The multiple mechanisms account for multiple evolutionary models. Each of the different disciplines seem to think that the others are wrong in their understanding of evolution. Nobody really knows how it works, but they accept it anyway.

The epistemological structure of the work is its consistency. F&P argue evidence almost entirely. They do not spend time arguing naturalism. They are not acting as evangelists for naturalism, though they hold to it. By not confusing analogical and evidential approaches the material stands above the work of many other evolutionists.

[1] Coyne, Jerry, The Nation, "The Improbability Pump" , May 10, 2010, also available at [...] What Coyne fails to do is to account for Piattelli-Palmarini's background in molecular biology when his only ascription to their shared credentials is to say that "Fodor, a respected philosopher of mind, and Piattelli-Palmarini, a cognitive scientist, both accept the fact of evolution"
[2] pp. 98-99
[3] Quoting Dobzhansky, 1973, p. 30
[4] p. 30

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