DARWINIAN STRUGGLES: BUT IS THERE PROGRESS?

At the heart of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is the struggle for existence.1 Organisms are in ongoing conflict as they strive for food, space, and reproductive opportunities. It is from this struggle that we are led to natural selection, the success of some and the failure of others, and (given time) full-blooded evolutionary change. Whether or not this change means very much — whether in particular it leads to some form of progress, whatever that might mean — was debated before Darwin, by Darwin, and still in many quarters is debated today.2 As also is the question of whether it is appropriate to apply Darwin’s biological theory to the affairs of humans, in particular to the growth of knowledge.3 What we can say, however, is that those who work on Darwin and on the place in history of his ideas and influence — those who work in what is generally known as “Darwin Studies ” — have long been fighting vigorously for the success of their ideas. It is these struggles that are the focus of this essay. Whether there has been any progress is, as the saying goes, an exercise best left to the reader. I will start the discussion by going back a full fifty years, to 1959, the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of species. I think one can say without much controversy that this was the point at which Darwin Studies — especially understood as something demanding serious, professional-level scholarship and not just as an antiquarian, hagiography-producing hobby of retired scientists — really got going