عنوان

Darwinian fairytales :

(Number (ISBN

1594032009

(Number (ISBN

9781594032004

Number

b732528

Title Proper

Darwinian fairytales :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

selfish genes, errors of heredity, and other fables of evolution /

First Statement of Responsibility

David Stove ; introduction by Roger Kimball.

Edition Statement

Paperback edition

Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.

New York :

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

Encounter Books,

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2007.

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

©1995.

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

xv, 345 pages ;

Dimensions

23 cm

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Text of Note

"A Ridiculous Slander on Human Beings." That is what the philosopher David Stove concludes in his hilarious and razor-sharp inquiry into Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. But wait! Stove is no "creationist." He is not a proponent of "intelligent design." He is a man of "no religion," a theological skeptic who admits Darwin's "great genius" and acknowledges that the theory of natural selection is the most successful biological theory in history. But Stove also thinks that Darwinism is one of the most overblown of contemporary scientific dogmas. In Darwinian Fairytales, he provides a penetrating inventory of what the "unbelievable claims" of Darwinism, from its classic formulation in the nineteenth century through contemporary variations of neo-Darwinians such as E.O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins. Every organism has as many descendants as it can. That's what Darwinian Theory holds. But do you know anyone who has a many descendants as he could? In every species, child mortality - that is, the proportion of live births which die before reproductive age - is extremely high. How many friends do you know who have children? How many have died? The more privileged people are the more prolific: if one class in a society is less than another to the misery due to food-shortage, disease, and war, then the members of the more fortunate class will have (on average) more children than the members of the other class. Which comes closer to the truth, this Darwinian chestnut or the old song "The rich get richer and the poor get children"? Any variations in the least degree injurious to their possessors in the struggle for life will be rigidly destroyed by the process of natural selection. Start with the letter "A": Abortion, fondness for Alcohol, Altruism. Are any of these "variations" being "rigidly destroyed"? Darwinian Fairytales is a must-read book for people who want to get behind the doctrinaire can't that characterize both sides in the debate over Darwinism. It is the one book to read if you want to understand the issues behind the most hotly debated scientific controversy of our time. -- from back cover.

Parallel Title

Darwinian fairy tales

Evolution (Biology)

Human evolution.

Social Darwinism.

Sociobiology.

Evolution (Biology)

Human evolution.

Social Darwinism.

Sociobiology.

Number

Class number

Class number

Book number

Stove, D. C., (David Charles)

Kimball, Roger,1953-

Date of Transaction

20201203170427.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y