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Inadequacy of mechanical principles to explain organic evolution

McDougall, William

Body and mind: A history and a defense of animism (3rd ed.), 1915, p.246-257

London: Methuen & Co

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  • Título:
    Inadequacy of mechanical principles to explain organic evolution
  • Autor: McDougall, William
  • Assuntos: Ancestors ; Biology ; Genetics ; History of Psychology ; Human Body ; Mutations ; Natural Selection ; Offspring ; Physiological Processes ; Theory of Evolution
  • É parte de: Body and mind: A history and a defense of animism (3rd ed.), 1915, p.246-257
  • Descrição: Organic evolution has proceeded in the main by discontinuous variation, i.e. by the sudden appearance,, in some individuals of a species, of large modifications of structure or function which are transmitted in full to their offspring, and which, though they will be more likely to be perpetuated if they are of such a nature as to advantage the creatures in their struggle for existence, may nevertheless persist as specific characters independently of, and indeed in spite of, natural selection. It is proposed to use the name "mutations" to distinguish variations of this kind from the small indefinite or fluctuating variations on which Darwin and the Neo-Darwinists have chiefly relied. The supposition that mutations have been the principal factor in organic evolution certainly diminishes some of the difficulties of the theory of evolution, but it removes it further than ever from the hope of mechanistic explanation. For these mutations cannot be regarded as purely fortuitous variations, or slight accidental departures from exact transmission of the parental characters, as the fluctuating indeterminate variations fairly may be regarded. Attention must be drawn to a feature of the constitution of organisms, which, as Driesch has pointed out, cannot be explained by either the Darwinian or the Lamarckian principle, nor by that of organic selection; this feature is the power of restitution of functions and regeneration of organs after injury, possessed in some degree by all organisms. The power, for example, of regenerating a lost limb can have been acquired neither by use-inheritance nor by natural selection, for the simple reason that it is a power called into play in but few individuals of each generation; it is a power which, though highly advantageous to the few individuals that have occasion to manifest it, is of little importance to the species as a whole. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
  • Editor: London: Methuen & Co
  • Idioma: Inglês
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