Wednesday, July 16, 2008

"Darwinism"

Via Andrew Sullivan:
I’d like to abolish the insidious terms Darwinism, Darwinist and Darwinian. They suggest a false narrowness to the field of modern evolutionary biology, as though it was the brainchild of a single person 150 years ago, rather than a vast, complex and evolving subject to which many other great figures have contributed.

I agree with this sentiment, I've often felt dissatisfied with the term "Darwinism". Physics isn't "Newtonism". But I also can't take seriously anyone's attempt consciously to change common language - has that ever worked?

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