Abstract
This chapter examines why and how life undergoes an evolution of species, drawing upon Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, as well as more recent thinkers, such as Hans Jonas, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins. The discussion begins by examining Aristotle’s ladder of life forms to shed light on the problems of how to differentiate the fundamental forms of life and how their differentiation bears upon the order of their emergence. The special individuality of living things is addressed in connection with their species being and how heredity plays a role in the diversification of species. The fundamental stages of evolutionary development are then outlined, taking into account how differences in metabolism affect the order of evolution. The chapter concludes by considering how rational animals can affect the course of evolution through ethical concern and genetic engineering.
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Notes
- 1.
Dennett, Daniel C., Darwin’s Dangerous Idea (New York: Simon & Schuster: 1995), p. 127.
- 2.
Aristotle, Ethics, Book I, Chapter 7, 1097b30–1098a17, in The Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume Two, p. 1735.
- 3.
Hans Jonas develops all these salient points in the essay, “To Move and to Feel: On the Animal Soul”, in Hans Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2001), pp. 99–107.
- 4.
Aristotle, Physics, Book II, Chapter 8, 198b24–199a8, in The Complete Works of Aristotle – Volume One, p. 339.
- 5.
Aristotle, Physics, Book II, Chapter 8, 199a35–199b4, in The Complete Works of Aristotle – Volume One, p. 340.
- 6.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, pp. 43–44.
- 7.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, pp. 43–44.
- 8.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, p. 43.
- 9.
Daniel C. Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meaning of Life (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1995), p. 86.
- 10.
Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 86.
- 11.
For a detailed account of pre-linguistic consciousness and self-consciousness, see Richard Dien Winfield, The Living Mind: From Psyche to Consciousness (Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011).
- 12.
Identical twins, as well as offspring of asexual mitosis, may be further individuated due to epigenesis, where environmental factors impact upon both how and when sections of the genetic material are activated, and even alter the genetic material itself.
- 13.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1976).
- 14.
Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 116.
- 15.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, pp. 99–107.
- 16.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, p. 102; Hegel, Philosophy of Nature, Zusatz to §344, p. 308.
- 17.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, p. 103.
- 18.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, pp. 101–102.
- 19.
Jonas, The Phenomenon of Life, p. 107.
- 20.
Descartes, Discourse on Method, and Meditations, trans. Laurence J. LaFleur (Indianapolis: Library of Liberal Arts, 1960), p. 36.
- 21.
Kant, Immanuel, The Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, trans., H. J. Paton (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), pp. 62–63.
- 22.
Dennett discusses the “weak” and “strong” anthropic views in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, pp. 165–166.
- 23.
See Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, pp. 85–103, for a discussion of this “Tree of Life”, and its retrospective character.
- 24.
Dennett makes this point in Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 114.
- 25.
See Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, p. 114, for an elaboration of this point.
Bibliography
Aristotle. 1984. Nicomachean Ethics, Physics. In The Complete Works of Aristotle – Volume Two, ed. J. Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Dawkins, Richard. 1976. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dennett, Daniel C. 1995. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Descartes. 1960. Discourse on Method, and Meditations. Trans. Laurence J. LaFleur. Indianapolis: Library of Liberal Arts.
Jonas, Hans. 2001. The Phenomenon of Life. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Kant, Immanuel. 1964. The Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Trans. H. J. Paton. New York: Harper & Row.
Winfield, Richard Dien. 2011. The Living Mind: From Psyche to Consciousness. Lantham: Rowman & Littlefield.
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Winfield, R.D. (2018). Evolution and the Development of the Different Forms of Life. In: Universal Biology after Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75358-4_4
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