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The Evolutionary Theories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer

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The Evolutionary Theories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer Grand Valley State University ScholarWorks@GVSU Other Scholarly Publications Biology Department 9-1974 Comments on "The volutE ionary Theories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer" by Derek Freeman Carl J. Bajema Grand Valley State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/biootherpubs Part of the Biology Commons, and the Evolution Commons Recommended Citation Bajema, Carl J., "Comments on "The vE olutionary Theories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer" by Derek Freeman" (1974). Other Scholarly Publications. 3. https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/biootherpubs/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Biology Department at ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Other Scholarly Publications by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. owe littleor none of theirsuperiority to direct inheritance Freeman: DARWIN AND SPENCER fromthe old Greeks, though theyowe much to the written worksof thatwonderful people." Here, it willbe discerned, ters." At that time, the conceptualization of culture as a not only does Darwin distinguish between heredity and "closed system"(Jenks 1918:490) was seen byLowie (1917:5) learned repertory,but he also attributesthe superiority as "a declaration of independence against the older 'more in civilizationof certain 19th-century"western nations of general' sciencesof biologyand psychology."By the 1950s, Europe" over their own "savage progenitors" predomi- however, the limitationsof the cultural deterministpara- nantlyto elements in ancient Greek civilizationwhich (as digm thatemerged in the wake of Kroeber's (1915) "eight- we would now say) had been culturallytransmitted to them. een professions" had become apparent; and in 1955, As I have alreadyshown, Darwin consideredthat progress Kroeber himselfgave it as his opinion (1955:198) that the in human societies was "no invariable rule" and, further, period during which "generic human nature" had been that progress depended on "many concurrent favourable discounted by the great majority of anthropologistswas conditions far too complex to be followed out." However, "drawing to a close." The course of events since then has while thus refraining from any premature attempt to borne out Kroeber's prediction,37and it has now become analyse the complex etiology of such human progress as evident that an authentic science of anthropology must had occurred, Darwin (1901 [1871] :220) was prepared to be based on a paradigm that gives recognition to the venturea broad general opinion as to the probable nature interactionof cultural, biological,and environmentalvari- of the significantvariables: "The more efficientcauses of ables in historicaland contemporarysituations, as during progressseem to consistof a good education during youth the evolutionarypast of the human species (cf. Freeman whilst the brain is impressible, and of a high standard 1970:68). of excellence, inculcated by the ablest and best men, The modern biological theory of evolution is basic to embodied in the laws, customs and traditionsof the nation such an anthropologicalparadigm, being in no way incom- and enforced by public opinion." Here again, Darwin patible with the recognitionof the emergence of learned explicitlyrecognized the learned repertoryof a societyas behaviourand symbolicsystems as factorsof ever increasing one of the "more efficientcauses" of progressin civilization, significancein human evolutionand history.It is of impor- while specificallystating that natural selection acts, in such tance,therefore, that contemporary anthropologists should conditions,"only tentatively"(p. 217) and in "a subordinate have an accurateunderstanding of thoseconcepts of Charles degree" (p. 220). Darwin on whichthe modern biologicaltheory of evolution That Darwin did indeed recognize the superordinate is founded, and that theseconcepts should not be confused importance of what are now called cultural adaptations with the obsolete Lamarckian evolutionism of Herbert is furtherconfirmed by his restatement,in summary,of Spencer. It is hoped that this paper will be a contribution his views on this issue (1901[1871]:945): to that end. Importantas the strugglefor existence has been and even still is, yetas far as the highestpart of man's natureis concerned thereare otheragencies more important. For the moralqualities are advanced,either directly or indirectly,much more through Abstract the effectsof habit,the reasoningpowers, instruction, religion, &c., thanthrough natural selection; though to thislatter agency In thispaper certaincrucial differencesbetween the evolu- maybe safelyattributed the social instincts,which afforded the tionarytheories of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer basisfor the development of themoral sense. are explored. Particularattention is given to the Lamarckian basis of Spencer's doctrine. Here, Darwin adopted, in embryonic form, what today evolutionary would be called an interactionistposition. That is, while acknowledging the superordinate importance of learned behaviour as the adaptation on which human civilization is founded, he at the same time recognized that some Comments learned behaviour has, in part, a biological basis. Darwin's view thus foreshadowedthe contemporaryscientific para- by CARL JAY BAJEMA digm succinctlyexpressed by Dobzhansky (1969:290): ". Allendale,Mich., U.S.A. 2 xi 73 mankind'sprincipal adaptive instrumentis culture.Culture The resurgenceof interestin evolutionarytheories is acquired and transmittednot through genes; symbol among anthropologistsmakes Freeman's paper very formationand symboliclanguage are the chief modes of timely. My only criticismis that sometimesit doesn't go far enough. transmission.Yet thisnon-genetic transmission has a genetic For example, thediffering views that foundation." Spencer and Darwin held with to led In other words, while some of his interpretationsare respect "progress" to their adopting differentdefinitions of evolution. Spencer was the first at errorand require substantialrevision, Darwin did recog- person to extend the meaning of the word nize (and at a time when the concept of culture was in evolution to include some of the changes in species over time. Spencer a rudimentarystate of development) that human history (1857b:446[1891a:10]) defined evolution as had long since reached a phase in whichlearned behavioural change in a particulardirection-change of thesimple into the adaptations had become "much more" important than complex ("a change fromthe homogeneous to the genetic variables in determiningsocial change, while still heterogeneous"). Darwin (1859:171,340,443,456) essentially attachingimportance to the nature of the brain and body considered evolution to be of man as these evolved, in earlier times, predominantly any hereditarychange occurring within a by means of natural selection. species over time("descent withmodification") regardless of the directionof the change. Although "evolved" is the last word of the firstedition of On the Origin of Species, As Stocking (1968:365) has shown, the propounding of the theorythat culture is "a thing sui generis" by Kroeber, "Cf. Chapple (1970:viii-xv) for a listing of "the advances in biology and anthropologyover the last twenty-fiveyears which Lowie, and others was linked with the overthrowof "the have contributedso much to the formulationof a consistentand Lamarckian notion of the inheritanceof acquired charac- integratedapproach to human behaviour and to culture." Vol. 15 - No. 3 - September1974 221 Darwin rarely used the term evolution in his published unsound. Such a distortedview of Spencer can be sustained works-perhaps because Spencer had defined evolution only by a very careful selection and skillfulinterweaving as progressfrom the simple to the complex. Spencer's idea of a limitedbody of evidence. While quite properlypointing thatevolution must be progressivehas become so ingrained out certain errors in Spencer's views on organic evolution, in the minds of some modern anthropologiststhat they Freeman nevertheless minimizes, ignores, or suppresses have even resortedto using the termdevolution to describe a much larger part of Spencer's evolutionism.The result changes whichlead to a decrease in complexityof organiza- is a serious misrepresentationof intellectualhistory. tion (Carneiro 1972). Freeman's analysisshould help make Freeman's attackcenters on Spencer's beliefin the inher- anthropologistsmore aware that not all scientistsdefine itance of acquired characteristicsand on the prominent evolutionin the same way and thatdifferences in definition role he assigned to it in organic evolution. He shows quite lead to differentconclusions. correctlythat in clingingto thisbelief in the face of mounting Second, Spencer (1864) invented the phrase "survival evidence against it, Spencer was dogmatic and even per- of the fittest"to describe natural selection, and Darwin verse. Not content with this, however, he goes on to say (1869) adopted this phrase to define natural selection in that Spencer's social evolutionismalso rested squarely on the fifthand subsequent editions of the Origin of Species. the inheritanceof acquired characteristics,and that when This has probably led many modern scientiststo believe this doctrine fell, his social evolutionismfell with it. But thatthere must have been a greatdeal of similaritybetween this contentioncannot be sustained. the evolutionarytheories of Darwin and Spencer. Freeman's
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