Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and UtilityRomanes, George John
Science
Darwin, and After Darwin, Volume 2 of 3: Post-Darwinian Questions: Heredity and Utility
Romanes, George John
Evolution (Biology); Heredity
From the doctrine of utility as advocated by Professor Huxley, we may
now pass on to consider it in the much more comprehensive form advocated
by Mr. Wallace. Of course it is obvious that if the doctrine is
erroneous in its Huxleyan form, much more must it be so in its
Wallacean; and, therefore, that having shown its erroneousness in its
less extended application, there is little need to consider it further
in its more extended form. Looking, however, to its importance in this
more extended application, I think we ought to examine it independently
as thus presented by Mr. Wallace and his school. Let us therefore
consider, on its own merits, the following statement:--It follows
directly from the theory of natural selection that not only all species,
but likewise all specific characters, must be due to natural selection,
and, therefore, must all be of use to the species which present them, or
else correlated with other characters which are so.
It seems worth while to observe, _in limine_, that this doctrine is
contradicted by that of Professor Huxley. For supposing natural
selection to be the only principle concerned in the origin of all
species, it by no means follows that it is the sole agency concerned in
the origin of all specific characters. It is enough for the former
proposition if only some of the characters distinctive of any given
species--nay, as he very properly expresses it, if only one such
character--has been due to natural selection; for it is clear that, as
he adds, "any number of indifferent [specific] characters" may thus have
been furnished with an opportunity, so to speak, of being produced by
causes other than natural selection. Hence, as previously remarked, the
Huxleyan doctrine, although coinciding with the Wallacean up to the
point of maintaining utility as the only principle which can be
concerned in the origin of species, designedly excludes the Wallacean
doctrine where this proceeds to extend any similar deduction to the case
of specific characters[87].
[87] Professor Huxley's views upon this matter are quoted _in
extenso_ in Appendix II.
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