Darwin-L Message Log 1:59 (September 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

---

<1:59>From GGALE@VAX1.UMKC.EDU  Tue Sep  7 15:41:32 1993

Date: Tue, 07 Sep 1993 15:43:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: GGALE@VAX1.UMKC.EDU
Subject: Re: Evolution and Change
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu

An extremely useful account of change vs. evolution vs. progress, and
all the other synonyms, is to be found in "The Concept of Biological
Progress", by Francisco Ayala, in _Studies in the Philosophy of Biology_,
Ayala and Dobzhansky, U.C. press.

An even more general discussion, perhaps more useful because of it, is
William Dray, _Philosophy of History_, Prentice-Hall, Ch. 5.

Most philosophers agree that "progress" or its cognates requires as
necessary conditions change + direction + positive evaluation of the
direction.

It's a reaaaallll hard case to make out, as I'm sure most of you already
know.

Oh--intro: I teach philosophy of biology, but do research in history of
cosmology.

Regards to all!
George
ggale@vax1.umkc.edu

---

Your Amazon purchases help support this website. Thank you!