EVOLUTION AND THERMODYNAMICS 



at being able to unite all forms of irreversibility under one law leads 

 him to an undue denigration of the genuine rise in level of organisation 

 which evolution shows. Evolution, he rightly maintains, is not a mere 

 changeful sequence. Mere unlikeness of two days does not tell us 

 which preceded the other. It is necessary to know something of the 

 character of this unlikeness. 



"In a vague way," he goes on, "this character is indicated by 

 the term 'progress,' which is associated in popular conception 

 with evolution. And the more rigorous scientific disciplines of 

 biology, too, leave us with a not very clearly defined idea of 

 'progression' as one of the fundamental characteristics of those 

 changes which are embraced by the term evolution. Such phrases 

 as the 'passage from lower to higher forms,' which are often 

 used to describe the direction of evolution, are vague, and un- 

 doubtedly contain an anthropomorphic element. At best they 

 give every opportunity for divergence of opinion as to what 

 constitutes a 'higher' form. If, on the other hand, it is stated 

 that evolution proceeds from simpler to more complex forms, or 

 from less specialised to more specialised forms, then the direction 

 is but poorly defined, for the rule is at best one with many 

 exceptions."^ 



And to this he adds in a footnote the remark of Bertrand Russell: 

 "A process which led from amoeba to man appeared to the philo- 

 sophers to be obviously a progress — though whether the amoeba 

 would agree with this opinion is not known." After which he proceeds 

 to take irreversibility as the principal character of the evolutionary 

 process. 



But this will not do. Denial of the rise in organisational level 

 during evolution (and social evolution too) is not, and cannot be, 

 acceptable to biologists. Definitions of what this means have been 

 attempted above. Russell's wit is empty. It is mere verbiage (though 

 it might in some circumstances be poetry) to talk about the opinions 

 of molecules, or in that favourite phrase, "the hookworm's point of 

 view" when its nervous system does not entitle it to have a point of 

 view. Philosophers, on the contrary, are so entitled. 



Here Max Planck has a relevant passage; 



"The second law of thermodynamics has frequently been 

 applied outside physics. For example, attempts have bf m made 



^ A. J. Lotka, Elements of Physical Biology (Baltimore, 1925), p. 22. 



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