Is Indeterminism the Source of the Statistical Character of Evolutionary Theory?

Brandon and Carson (1996) [hereafter BC] dispute at least one part of these analyses. They hold that the theory of evolution [hereafter ET] "is fundamentally indeterministic." More fully, they argue for a conditional: What we have shown is that if one is a realist in one's attitude towards science-that if one thinks that a primary aim of doing science is to develop theories that truly describe the mechanisms producing the phenomena, and if one takes theoretical fruitfulness and experimental confirmation as evidence for the reality of theoretical entities-then one should conclude that ET is fundamentally indeterministic. (336) Actually we suspect that this statement ofBC's misstates their position: that evolution (not, as they say here, evolutionary theory) is indeterministic, and that is why the theory is statistical. We shall therefore assume that their argument is that the theory is statistical because the phenomena are indeterministic.

Duke Scholars

Author Alexander Rosenberg Philosophy