Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Dobzhansky , Theodosius Grigorievich and Dobzhansky , Theodosius (1937), Genetics and the origin of species, Columbia Univ Pr, Retrieved on 2012-04-25Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: science Memes
25 APR 2012
"Adaptation" is Not Teleological
In its essence, the theory of natural selection is primarily an attempt to give an account of the probable mechanism of the origin of the adaptations of the organisms to their environment, and only secondarily an attempt to explain evolution at large. Some modem biologists seem to believe that the word 'adaptation' has teleological connotations, and should therefore be expunged from the scientific lexicon. With this we must emphatically disagree. That adaptations exist is so evident as to be ...It is not an end, neither is evolution, and this is not the best state of things there could be.