MAN AND LAW IN EVOLUTION

To answer the questions proposed by this forum, I have to outline my current studies on “the laws of evolution, ” which takes place in the framework of environmental studies and history of science. A simple observation will become a starting point of my research: No chemist will tell that copper originated from iron through selection of small variations during the adaptation to the best temperature of melting, although in biology similar statements are normal. Natural sciences contain numerous laws, while in biology the laws tend to be replaced with speculations. The attempts to reveal the laws of evolution, which would be similar to the laws of chemistry and physics, were undertaken mainly within a frame-work of the directed evolution concepts (orthogenesis). The advocates of these concepts claimed the following: Living organisms have a predispo-sition to vary in certain directions, and this very predisposition determines trends of evolution first of all; as crystals grow taking a certain form, so phylogenetic trends evolve following internal laws. This idea was firs