BIOS 201: Lecture 13 Tuesday 03.10.

2022
The Darwinian Riposte and the 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Evolution of Evolution
 Occam’s Razor
“Pluralitas non est ponenda sine
necessitate”
=
“Plurality should not be posited
without necessity.”

-William of Ockham (1285- 1347/49)

Also known as the law of parsimony, or the law of economy

To cite the arch clichés, we get the age of rocks, and religion retains the
rock of ages; we study how the heavens go, and they determine how to
go to heaven.
 Non Overlapping Magisteria (NOMA)

“I believe, with all my heart, in a respectful, even loving concordat between our
magisteria—the NOMA solution. NOMA represents a principled position on moral and
intellectual grounds, not a mere diplomatic stance. NOMA also cuts both ways. If religion
can no longer dictate the nature of factual conclusions properly under the magisterium of
science, then scientists cannot claim higher insight into moral truth from any superior
knowledge of the world's empirical constitution. This mutual humility has important
practical consequences, in a world of such diverse passions.” (S. J. Gould, 1997)
The Great Chain of Being
The Ascent of Man
Name the People
 Name the People

Jean Baptiste Lamarck Georges Cuvier m Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
(1744-1829) (1769-1832) (1707-1788)
Name the People
 Name the People

Erasmus Darwin Thomas Malthus William Paley

(1731-1802) (1766-1834) (1743-1805)
William Paley (1743-1805)
The Watchmaker Analogy
Darwin’s Timeline
HMS Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle
Darwin’s Finches
Down House
 Notebook B
Is the shortness of life of species in certain orders connected with gaps in the series of
connections?
If starting from same epoch certainly
The absolute end of certain forms from considering S. America (independent of external
causes) does appear very probable: —
Mem: Horse, Llama, &c., &c. —
If we suppose grant similarity of animals in one country owing to springing from one
branch, and the monucle has definite life, then all die at one period which is not the case, ∴
monucule1 not definite life.
36
I think
[sketch]
Case must be that one generation then should be as many living as now. To do this & to
have many species in same genus (as is) requires extinction.
Thus between A & B immense gap of relation. C & B the finest gradation, B & D rather
greater distinction. Thus genera would be formed. — bearing relation
37
to ancient types. — with several extinct forms
for if each species an ancient (1) is capable of making 13 recent forms1, twelve of the
contemporarys must have left no offspring at all2, so as to keep number of species constant.
—
With respect to extinction we can easy see that variety of ostrich, Petise may not be well
adapted, and thus perish out, or on other hand like Orpheus being favourable
many might be produced. — This requires principle that the permanent varieties produced
by inter confined breeding & changing circumstances are continued & produced according
to the adaptation of such circumstances, & therefore that death of species is a
consequence (contrary to what would appear from America)
Robert Chambers, 1802-1871
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
Concluding lines from The Origin of Species
Name the People
 Name the People

Richard Owen Louis Agassiz

(1804-1892) (1807-1873)
Natural History Museum, London
Harvard Museum of Natural History
Name the People
 Name the People

Joseph Hooker Thomas H. Huxley

(1817-1911) (1825-1895)

Charles Lyell Asa Gray

(1797-1855) (1810-1888)
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Coiner of the term, “the survival of the fittest”

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
The Wallace Line
Biogeographic Regions of the World
Westminster Abbey, London
Darwin’s Finches
Lemurs
Social Darwinism
NC Museum of Natural Science
Creation Museum (Petersburg, Kentucky)
Creation Museum