HUMAN ORGANIC EVOLUTION: FACT OR FANCY? 



was provisionally grouped with early man. Yet fifteen years 

 ago, my Professor of Physical Anthropology, Krogman, who 

 had seen the skull, felt very uncomfortable, and always placed 

 it outside any phylogenetic classification. He was not alone 

 in this, and its was with the discovery of certain chemical 

 techniques that the hoax could be established. ^9 



Aside from these considerations, other criteria by which a 

 theory may be judged can be advanced. A recent article 

 suggests that simplicity and elegance are the fundamental 

 principles that circumscribe the quahties of theory.^o Though 

 this article refers to theoretical physics the problem has also 

 been discussed elsewhere. In this essay, simplicity is defined 

 as "the principle that postulates the resolution of a physical 

 problem to the fewest possible mutually independent elements 

 in terms of which the problem is quantitatively represented 

 into simple mathematical formulae." It would seem that if we 

 substituted the word biological for physical, one could have 

 here a criterion which might be applicable to the theory of 

 evolution. The mutually independent elements that have been 

 isolated so far are certainly the genes, and the factors which 

 change in gene frequencies. These, as was pointed out several 

 times, can be represented in relatively simple mathematical 

 formulae. However, as was indicated above, there is reason 

 to believe that the biological sciences are still a long way 

 from identifying all the "mutually independent elements," the 

 search for which is greatly complicated by the fact that in 

 living matter all parts are interconnected and work on each 

 other. Even the phenomenon of change in the gene itself is 

 as yet little understood. 



The second criterion of elegance is defined as "the principle 

 that postulates the adequate representation of a physical 

 problem in mathematical formulae which bestow unity, sym- 

 metry, and harmony among the elements of the problem." 

 Again with the appropriate substitution we may examine the 

 evolutionary theory. As already pointed out, mathematical 

 formulations are the order of the day in modern genetics. But 



29 Cf. Kenneth P. Oakley and J. S. Wiener, "Piltdown Man," American 

 Scientist 1955. vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 573^583. 



30 Cf. John D. Tsilikis, "Simplicity and Elegance in Theoretical Physics," 

 American Scientist, 1959, vol, 47, no. 1, pp. 87—96. 



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