From: Chuck Roghair (ctr@pacificpartssales.com)
Date: Fri Oct 08 2004 - 19:17:35 BST
Good Morning All:
Platt wrote:
>From Lila, Chap. 11:
"Phaedrus had found a good summary of the entire matter in a Scientific
American article by Ernst Mayr. 'Evolution is recklessly opportunistic: it
favors any variation that provides a competitive advantage over other
members of an organism's own population or over individuals of different
species. For billions of years this process has automatically fueled what
we call evolutionary progress. No program controlled or directed this
progression. It was the result of spur of the moment decisions of natural
selection.' "
Evolutionary theory is based on "natural selection" which means chance
mutations in DNA account for physical changes in organisms that in some
cases prove to be advantageous in the environment, enhancing survival.
Such accidental changes are then passed on to succeeding generations.
"No program controlled or directed this progression" according to Mayr,
speaking for the scientific view of evolution. How this evolutionary
process that's driven by chance arose in the first place is, of course,
never answered lest some supernatural power be admitted. :-)
Chuck responds w/
LILA chp 11, pg.166
"Natural Selection is Dynamic Quality at work. There is no quarrel
whatsoever between the Metaphysics of Quality and the Darwinian Theory of
Evolution. Neither is there a quarrel between the Metaphysics of Quality
and the "teleological" theories which insist that life has some purpose.
What the Metaphysics of Quality has done is unite these opposed doctrines
within a larger metaphysical structure that accommodates both of them
without contradiction."
Sometimes, you have to finish reading the chapter.
The whole thing sounds a bit perennial to me.
Best regards,
Chuck
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