Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

the gene-culture coevolution proposed by evolutionary
biologist E. O. Wilson (see Wilson, Edward O).
An idea that Dawkins did not invent but that he has
been a leading world figure in promoting is that natural
selection can produce complexity by gradual steps. There
is no need for a supernatural Designer to produce complexity;
for any apparently complex structure or function, one
can find simpler ones. It is largely through his works such
as The Blind Watchmaker and Climbing Mount Improbable
that many readers today have encountered the argument
first made by Darwin (see Darwin, Charles; origin of
species [book]). The Blind Watchmaker takes direct aim at
the metaphor used by the 18th-century English theologian
William Paley to present perhaps the most famous defense
of the Design Argument (see natural theology). Because
Dawkins has promoted the concept that complexity can
arise out of the interactions of simple components, he has
taken an interest in computer simulations of the origins of
complexity (see emergence).
Dawkins is famous for proclaiming (see especially A
Devil’s Chaplain for his personal reflections) that religion,
even if it may have played an essential role in human evolution
(see religion, evolution of), is a source of irritation,
grief, and destructiveness in modern human society.
Further Reading
Catalano, John. “The World of Richard Dawkins.” Available online.
URL: http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkinsarchive/index.shtml
Accessed March 23, 2005.
Dawkins, Richard. The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of
Evolution. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
———. The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution
Reveals a Universe Without Design. New York: Norton, 1986.
———. Climbing Mount Improbable. New York: Norton, 1997.
———. A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and
Love. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.
———. The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
———. The God Delusion. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
———. River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life. New York:
BasicBooks, 1995.
———. The Selfish Gene. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
———. Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion, and the Appetite
for Wonder. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
Grafen, Alan, and Mark Ridley. Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist
Changed the Way We Think. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University
Press, 2006.
Descent of Man (book) When Darwin (see Darwin,
Charles) wrote his famous book (see origin of species
[book]) in 1859, he gathered together evidence from all areas
of scientific research to establish the common evolutionary
ancestry of all species, and to present natural selection
as the mechanism of evolution. It was clear that Darwin did
not exclude humans from an evolutionary origin, but he said
very little about it: “Much light will be thrown on the origin
of man and his history.” Soon after the publication of Ori-
Descent of Man (book)
gin of Species, other scientists did not hesitate to present the
evidence of human evolution. Man’s Place in Nature, published
in 1863 by the British zoologist Huxley (see Huxley,
Thomas Henry), presented the fossil evidence that showed
humans as one of the apes. Natural History of Creation,
published in 1866 by the German zoologist Haeckel (see
Haeckel, Ernst) left no doubt that evolutionary theory
includes human origins.
It was not until 1871 that Charles Darwin published a
book that clearly presented the evolutionary origin of the
human species, entitled The Descent of Man, and Selection
in Relation to Sex. Part I of the book presents the evidence
for the descent of humans from earlier animal forms. Part II
of the book presents Darwin’s theory of sexual selection,
which he applies to humans in Part III. Rather than being
three books in one, The Descent of Man uses sexual selection
as the explanation for the origin of unique human characteristics
and of human diversity. The diversity of human
bodies and, even more clearly, the diversity of human cultures
require more than just adaptation to different environmental
conditions. The only way Darwin could explain
human diversity was through sexual selection. Sexual selection
remains today an important part of evolutionary theory
and is still considered by evolutionary scientists to be the
main process that produced unique human characters and
human diversity.
Part I. The first chapter presents evidence of human evolutionary
origin, including the homology of human organs with
those of apes and vestigial characteristics in humans left
over from previous evolutionary stages. In the second chapter,
Darwin speculates about how the transformation from lower
animal into human might have occurred. He proposed that the
evolution of humans began when human ancestors started to
rely on tools rather than teeth for processing food, and that
the increase in brain size came later, allowing the use of ever
more complex tools. Evolutionary scientists still recognize that
brain size began to increase and tool use started at about the
same time in human evolution. Darwin also proposed that
many human characteristics could be understood as examples
of what is now called neoteny, or the retention of juvenile
characteristics into adulthood. The third chapter explains
that, although humans have vastly greater mental powers than
the other apes, there are many mental characteristics (such as
emotions) that humans share with other animals. Chapters 4
and 5 extend this argument to the evolution of human moral
instincts (see evolutionary ethics), including their advancement
through the barbarous period that preceded human civilization.
Chapter 6, like Huxley’s book, places humankind in
the animal kingdom. In Chapter 7 Darwin speculates about
the origins of human races. While he explains that races differ
in their adaptations to different climates, he concludes that,
“We have thus far been baffled in all our attempts to account
for the differences between the races of man; but there remains
one important agency, namely Sexual Selection, which appears
to have acted powerfully on man …” An appendix presents
Huxley’s explanations of the similarities between the brains of
humans and other animals.