Rediscovering Darwin

As was also the case with Newton, Darwin's influence was subject to the larger currents of his time and key phrases such as the survival of the fittest coined by Herbert Spencer and reflecting the competitive ethos of Victorian capitalism. Even then, cooperation was also highlighted in the work of Prince Kropotkin in his book Mutual Aid. Using a word search programme for The Descent of Man, the author discovered that Darwin had written only twice about the survival of the fittest and 95 times about love as well as 92 times about the moral sense, especially in relation to love and community. For instance, he writes that 'those communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring.' Here he is talking about cultural rather than biological evolution. The author analyses the legacies into traditional Neo-Darwinians, what he calls the Super Neos like Dawkins and Dennett, and the Creationists. The middle vociferous group has transformed variation by adding 'random' and hence the idea that evolution is ruled by blind chance.

Loye sees this as a blind alley that does not reflect Darwin's own thinking - he feels that the work of Wilber, Laszlo and his wife Riane Eisler are truer reflections of his original intent, as was the work of Charles Sanders Peirce who in 1893 added the term creative love as the third driver of evolution along with mechanical necessity and fortuitous variation - this prefigures the work of Teilhard de Chardin. Darwin highlights love between animals (p. 90) and the development of a moral sense in human society - he was influenced by the contemporary moral philosopher Alexander Bain. He was also familiar with the anthropological work of Sir Edward Tylor and the ethical thought of Henry Sidgwick. He respects the belief in all-pervading spiritual agencies (incidentally, it is clear that he must have taken a First in theology at Cambridge, being classified 10 out of 178 candidates). Darwin himself repudiates the notion of selfishness in evolution, distinguishing between higher and lower forms of motivation, the former related to 'the welfare of others'. As the author observes, Darwin's insistence on the moral sense as the primary drive in human evolution is an important message for our times. He has done a great service in bringing this message to the fore.