Human evolution and evolutionary theory

Man Did Evolve

Man is a creature who lives in what is known as the Universe. The Universe is made up of a large number of varied materials that interact with each other at all times and thus make up the shape and the size of the Universe as such. The human being, in his need to establish his position in this universe, undergoes biological as well as evolutionary changes at all times. The process known as Evolution helps the Human understand him and the ongoing process in the nature of things that has been responsible for his creation and his evolution through the ages. (the Evolution of the Human)

Charles Darwin was one of the foremost theorists of the process of Evolution and there is no person interested in Philosophy and the evolution of man who has not heard or read about Darwin somewhere. Charles Darwin was born in the year 1809 in Shrewsbury, England to Robert Waring Darwin, a physician, and Susannah Wedgwood Darwin. Since he had demonstrated a talent for and interest in entomology ever since he was a small child, and he was interested in the concept of the Evolution of Man, he visited several places that interested him and undertook the study of several different species of animals and birds and fish to find out how different species could adapt to the changing environment around them. (Darwin and Evolution)

By the year 1844, he wrote down his theory that all species are not 'immutable' or in other words that all species are not unassailable. With the collaboration of Sir Charles Lyell, Darwin put across his ideas to the scientific community, and the idea was that in the manner that when men selectively breed certain types of species, cattle, for example, they will inevitably exaggerate minor variations in them, Nature also selects variations in the same way, wherein only the most successful and hardened variations are allowed to reproduce because of the struggle over extremely limited resources that would, at one point in time, be exhausted. Therefore the diversity of nature would be permitted, and this theory was named 'natural selection'. (Darwin and Evolution)

The theory meant that the environment played an important role in the reproductive success of a group of several different organisms with different hereditary characteristics. In essence, the various factors that stop or curtail the reproductive success of these organisms decrease from one generation to the next, and this ensures that those organisms enjoy better reproductive success over successive generations, and would have adapted to the changes in the environment at the time. Therefore, the process of selection becomes stabilized, and so adaptation becomes easier. (Natural Selection)

It was in the year 1859 that Charles Darwin published his book 'The Origin of the Species'. This was a book that literally 'shook the world'. The book detailed the theory of natural selection that had been arrived at earlier, that stated that man as a species underwent a process of selection for the purpose of reproduction, and generation after generation adapted to the changes in the environment by improving their species, and this meant that each subsequent generation would possess those features that would help them to adapt better for survival, meaning that Man was continually evolving and getting better with each successive generation, and this in essence was what was meant by the theory of Evolution of Man. (Darwin, Charles Robert: Encyclopedia)

Another concept introduced by Darwin at this time was the theory that all related organisms are actually descendants of the same ancestors. He also stated that the Earth was in fact not a static object but was actually evolving all the time. The theories of Darwin were attacked by scientists and by religious heads. Scientists were of the opinion that Darwin could not in fact prove his theory of variation and could not explain how these variations originated and how they could be passed on from one generation to the next. Religious heads, on the other hand, furiously questioned Darwin's theory of evolution as they felt that all living things had in fact evolved by natural processes, and that human beings were being placed at the same level as that of animals, and this would not be tolerated since it was in direct opposition to theological concepts of the evolution of mankind. (Darwin, Charles Robert: Encyclopedia) Human Evolution, taken in ordinary terms, is the process by which humans have changed from the ape-like creatures that they once used to be into the human figures, as we know them today, through a process of continuous change and adaptation to the environment. (Human Evolution)

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher of the nineteenth century who, like Darwin theorized on the idea of the evolution of man. In fact, he defied the very foundations on which morality and Christianity were based by bringing forth the theory that life and creativity and other aspects of the life of a human being are all enmeshed in the real world, and not in some world beyond all those concepts. In other words, his theory is one of 'self-affirmation' wherein the very doctrines of life's forces and energies can be questioned by man, however socially relevant or prevalent those concepts may have been at that time of life. Friedrich Nietzsche was born in the year 1844 in the town of Rocken bei Lutzen. He published one of his first books in the year 1872, entitled 'The Birth of Tragedy, Out of the Spirit of Music', a treatise on Greek culture. (Friedrich Nietzsche: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Friedrich Nietzsche had, by this time started to believe in the rationale that non-rational forces exist at the very basis of all creativity and also of reality and these forces had led to the eruption of a wild and sometimes amoral 'Dionysian' energy in the ancient Greek culture. This energy, he stated was in essence a healthy and creative force that was subdued by the 'Apollonian' forces of maintaining a severe and strict sobriety and of thinking extremely logically at all times. He was of the opinion that European culture had been dominated, over the centuries, by the Apollonian ways of thought, and that it was time for a 'rebirth' based on the Dionysian concepts of the release of spontaneous and wild energies towards the fulfillment of a goal, and which was, without doubt, the 'Ultimate Truth'. The German spirit, he stated, must therefore act as the potential redeemer of European culture. (Friedrich Nietzsche: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

However, the most important and definitely the most significant of all the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche was the concept of the 'overman', also known as the 'Ubermensch' in German, mentioned in his book 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'. He explains how he feels that man must progress above the level of being just a 'human-all-too-human' and go on to more and beret ideals in life. This was a thought that can be seen in almost all of Friedrich Nietzsche's works. An 'overman' as seen in the book, must be someone who would be able to take enough risks for the betterment and enhancement of the entire human race, as opposed to the 'last man' who selfishly chooses his own comfort and well being over that of humanity in general. Therefore the overman must be an individual who can and will live his life among others and be able to establish what is right and what is wrong while living among them, all the time being aware of the fact that such values are not pre-given to anyone. (Nietzsche's ideas of an Overman and life from his point-of-view)

In this way an overman will be able to exert an influence over the others among whom he lives because he will be the one person who can develop his own values and standards of living independent of the others' who operate on a basic 'herd instinct' most of the time. An overman will therefore live his life with an expectation of the present, where nothing in the past and the present can be equal to the present life that he is living, rather than living his life with no sort of inner and deeper meaning, everyday. An overman will be able to, according to Nietzsche, affect history indefinitely, as he will be capable of entering the minds of other people in the world and affect their thought processes through this entry, like for example, Napoleon, who was able to change the very order of the entire length and breadth of Europe by his actions. The idea of the 'will-to-power' created by Friedrich Nietzsche is another of his theories on human kind that states that the will to power is the underlying force behind the way in which a human being thinks and acts and behaves in a constant struggle to quench his own desires in this world. (Nietzsche's ideas of an Overman and life from his point-of-view)

Some of the philosophies of life as presented by Nietzsche stem from Darwin's theories of evolution. He purported the theory that strength is the only acceptable or even desired quality in a human being and weakness in any form was a great failing, good will survive, and bad will fail. Ultimately, goodness will be replaced by strength; humility will be replaced by pride, the very basis of survival will be threatened by equality and the principle of democracy and power will replace justice in all aspects, and power will eventually be the judge of the destiny of humankind. The Church and religious heads of the time vehemently opposed these theories since they felt that this meant that human kind would be subjected to the theory of the 'survival of the fittest' wherein the weak become exterminated by the strong. (it's a Matter of life or Death)

Nietzsche's thoughts, though for the most part forgotten, do stay alive in 'Philosophical Investigations' by Wittgenstein, where Nietzsche's 'Theory of Knowledge' was elucidated at length, and through some of Thomas Kuhn's works on the 'closed circle' theory. Nietzsche has been likened by many as a warrior who had to fight against the dogmatic and inflexible type of thinking of his times. (Nietzsche Theory of Knowledge or Epistemology)

Another philosopher who theorized on the evolution of man was Aristotle. He was born in the year 384 BCE, in Stagira in Northern Greece. Though he was trained in the field of medicine, he studied philosophy with Plato. Aristotle was responsible for the writing of more than 150 philosophical treatises on a wide range of topics like morals and aesthetics, politics, and physics, and most importantly, biology. Aristotle felt that the 'ultimate reality' lay in the knowledge and the recognition of the various physical objects of the world, as opposed to Plato who stated that the ultimate reality lay in the knowledge of forms through reason and creative ideas. Aristotle felt that all objects were made up of a certain potential or possibility, and this was signified by the matter with which they were composed, and the reality of their innate form. (Aristotle: (384-322 B.C.E)

This is how, he said, a block of marble or 'matter' as he defined it, had the potential or the capacity to grow into the 'form' that the sculptor was giving it, just like the seed or the embryo of a plant being able to grow into the potential form that Nature had intended for it to grow into. In a living thing, Aristotle felt, the form was in fact the 'soul' of the thing; whereas plants possessed the lowest type of soul, and animals the higher, it was only human beings who were in possession of the highest class of souls that had reasoning power and rationale, and the power to feel things like emotions. Aristotle not only developed theories on philosophy, he also developed scientific treatises in which he was able to classify animals into different forms according to their shape and sizes, and was even able to describe in great detail the embryological development of a chick, a virtual feat at his time.

The great philosopher also expounded on the sciences of the Earth, meteorology. Aristotle believed in the theory that the Universe as such was 'Eternal', in that it did not have either a beginning or an end. Any change that would take place within the Universe, he stated, were cyclical, that meant, in other words, that though the materials in the earth may change, the conditions in earth will never change. For example, when water evaporated from the river, the same water would come back to the earth in a cyclical manner as rain. Therefore, everything was constantly evolving and constantly changing. (Aristotle: (384-322 B.C.E)

Aristotle was responsible for the setting up of a total intellectual agenda wherein he defined the 'Great Chain of Being', sometimes also known as the 'Ladder of creation'. It is here through this theory that he describes the method of the classification of all things in the correct and perfect manner in which it has been done by Nature in the Universe. The system stated that all living beings could ultimately be arranged in one single line, that is, in a 'one-dimensional' way. (Aristotle's Taxonomy), ranging from the highest spiritual levels of the human being to the lowest of all evolutionary creatures, the lowly worm, and extending from the very Throne of God to the center of the Earth. This theory became one of great importance even in later years when philosophers were trying to decipher the cosmological ideas of the evolution of Man. (Chain of Being)

Lee Spetner, a modern day contemporary theorist on the theory of evolution, talks about his views in his book entitled 'Not by Chance'. In the review of the book by Gert Korthof in 2003, he starts with the theory of Darwin that stated that a species is not fixed but is evolving and changing at all times, from their ancestral life forms by the process of natural selection and of heritable variation. Modern scientists today still see the validity of this theory, and they liken it to the theory of 'mutations' of today. These mutations are supposedly variations or errors of the DNA that is present in all living things, and that such mutations are 'random', that means that the mutations need not have any effect on the organism that they make up. They may be beneficial or harmful, and the beneficial mutations will be chosen and selected to be represented in the next generations, just in sufficient enough numbers to make sure that the process of evolution goes on unhindered. (Could it work?)

Dr. Lee Spetner however, is one of the scientists who believe that there is not enough number of positive mutations to keep the forces of evolution running. To quote an example of the unrealistic method of depicting the evolutionary process, Dr. Spetner derides the 'weasel' experiment conducted by scientist Richard Dawkins wherein he used the computer to make a choice or a selection out of a string of 28 random letters of the alphabet given to it, and substitute it with different alphabets, one at a time, until it read 'methinks it is like a weasel', a method, he emphasized, that was similar to the 'natural selection' theory offered by Charles Darwin in his treatise on the evolution of man. Spetner opined that this experiment served no great purpose since in selection in real life there could be no long-ranging goal; the mutation process would not be this quick and this pressurized, and that all positive mutations in real life tend to disappear over a period of time because of random effects. (Could it work?)

The fact that DNA sequences in real life is very much lengthier than what the experiment tried to demonstrate was also a moot point for Spetner. This led him to ask the question: can the accumulation of quite a few random mutations end up creating a totally new species, and how many are needed for the purpose? 'Speciation' is the general term for the 'getting' of a new species in scientific terminology. In other words, speciation involves the splitting up of one single species into two different ones; Spetner however avoids the use of this term. He preferred to delve into the nature of speciation and the various effects of mutation on speciation, the role that chance plays in the selection processes, the actual mechanisms of speciation, and the number of generations that would be involved to successfully create 'reproductive isolation'. He was able to calculate the probability or possibility of 500 steps of mutations occurring consecutively without a break. The figure he was able to arrive at was 2.7 multiplied by 10 to the power of 2793, which was derived by multiplying the possibility of each step 1/300,000 into 500 times. (Could it work?)

According to this figure, Spetner stated that it was impossible to produce the sufficient number of favorable mutations to produce a new species successfully. This part of the theory is considered by many to be wrong, as the speciation model he had adapted by him to demonstrate his calculations were by itself wrong. Spetner also made the mistake of mixing up 'reproductive isolation' and 'genetic distances', according to Gert Korthof. Generally, speciation also means reproductive isolation achieved by either geographic isolation or by the process of natural selection, and not the culmination of a series of small mutations as explained by Spetner. Reproductive isolation can be very quick and fast today, as demonstrated in the single-gene speciation of a Japanese snail in the space of a few generations alone.