Versuch einer philosophischen Selektionstheorie

Abstract

THE object of this essay is to place the theory of selection on a purely deductive and abstract basis as distinguished from the concrete form in which it is made familiar to modern evolutionists through the writings of Darwin and Wallace. From the philosophical point of view, it is certainly desirable that we should realise that the particular kind of selection which is operative in species transformation, or in the production of artificial races, is only one phase of selection in the abstract, and any attempt to make our ideas on this subject more exact will be welcome to philosophical students of evolution. It is, in fact, somewhat remarkable that, while all working naturalists have now accepted the doctrine of evolution in one form br another, comparatively few have attempted to examine into the philosophical basis of the principles of selection. Dr. Unbehaun's discussion of the subject, if not exhaustive, is at any rate very suggestive, and as a contribution to a much neglected aspect of the philosophy of evolution the work may be safely recommended to English biologists.

Versuch einer philosophischen Selektionstheorie.

Von Dr. Johannes Unbehaun Gotha. Pp. 150. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1896.)