Darwin and the Nature of Species

Preface

Preface  Looking back, I think it was more difficult to see what the problems were than to solve them. —Charles Darwin (letter to Charles Lyell, September 30, 1859) The year 1859 marks the beginning of an enormous earthquake, an earthquake that shook the world and continues to shake it to this very day. The earthquake and the consequent tremors were not caused by the gradual shift and strain of conflicting ideas, but by a sudden impact, the publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. It started a revolution in thinking, an enormous paradigm shift, the implications of which are still being worked out. Interestingly, at the very core of that revolution is the concept of species. It is important, then, to know exactly what Darwin did with that concept. The problem, however, is that for a variety of reasons scholars (biologists, philosophers of biology, and professional historians of biology) have provided interpretations that just don’t fit the facts. A large part of the reason, as we shall see, was caused by Darwin himself. At any rate, the problem of Darwin on the nature of species, what was the prevailing view and how he tried to change that view, has yet to be adequately understood and appreciated. The time is definitely overdue for a detailed historical reconstruction. This becomes even more important because the concept of species in biology, from the time of Darwin right up to today, is still far from settled. The purpose of this book is basically fourfold: First and foremost, to provide a full and detailed reconstruction of Darwin’s species concept focusing mainly on his mature evolutionary period, to get it right inasmuch as that is possible. In fact the present work breaks entirely new ground and constitutes a major reinterpretation of Darwin on the nature of species, in stark contrast to the literature on this topic, which stretches back over 140 ix years. Second, to apply Darwin’s insights on the ontology of species to the modern species problem. Third, to take my reconstruction work on Darwin and apply it as a case study to a core issue in philosophy of science, namely, the problem of concept change in scientific revolutions. Fourth and finally, to use Darwin’s species concept as an indictment against a now dominant trend in professional history of science. I shall expand on these purposes later in this Preface, but first I want to deal with some preliminary matters, beginning with the identity of the specific audiences for which this book was written. Obviously it should be of great interest to Darwin scholars. They alone will be able to fully appreciate and enjoy the detailed historical work (even though it is mainly internalist ) and the new direction that it takes. In fact anyone who is interested in things Darwinian should find this book worth their while. Historians of science, of course, should be especially interested not only for the work on Darwin but also for my application of it to what I call in the final chapter “the new historiography.” The second major audience is biologists and philosophers who are interested in the modern species problem. In fact this book serves actually as a prequel to my previous monograph, aptly titled The Species Problem (2003), which focuses mainly on the modern species problem (the problem of determining whether species are real, and if real the nature of their reality; hence the problem of defining the species category ). Darwin has much to say that is both interesting and important on this matter, although it has been almost entirely lost on subsequent scholars. Philosophers of science should also be interested, for the reconstruction work in the present book proves to be an enlightening case study for the topic of concept change in scientific revolutions, so much so that it presents a serious challenge to what many consider the received view. The problem begins primarily with Darwin’s most famous book, the full title of which is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Darwin 1859). In spite of the realist tone of its main title, Darwin repeatedly defines species, both individually and as a category, nominalistically, as arbitrary groupings and therefore as extramentally unreal. This is possibly the greatest enigma in the history of biology, even of science. Could it be that one of the greatest scientific minds of all time, and the main force...