PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



place in the past. In the same way it speaks about the origin 

 of the various forms in which Hfe presents itself. It contends 

 that millions of years ago life originated from non-living 

 matter (abiogenesis) and that by a process of gradual evolu- 

 tion the different forms of vegetative and animal life came 

 into existence (macro-evolution). The other branches of biol- 

 ogy, however, take it for granted that in the normal course of 

 events life not only always originates from life, but also that 

 the different generations always belong to the same type of 

 being: horses procreate horses, cows cows, flies flies, and 

 daisies daisies. There are undoubtedly slight differences 

 between parents and their offspring, but these differences 

 remain within the scope of a certain species (micro-evolution). 

 For this reason micro-evolution can be studied by the biologist 

 with experimental means, but not macro-evolution. We can 

 sum up the special position of the theory of evolution by saying 

 that abiogenesis and macro-evolution are not merely scientific, 

 but also "historical" hypotheses. They have perhaps taken 

 place, but biology is not able to verify them in an experimental 

 way. We may add: it is not impossible that one day the 

 scientist will succeed in showing us abiogenesis in his labora- 

 tory. But even then he would only have confirmed the 

 possibility of a natural ^biogenesis in the past, his experiment 

 will never confirm it as an historical fact. For science can never 

 verify historical, i.e., unique phenomena, it can only verify 

 repeatable events, i.e., it can verify the concrete only in an 

 abstract way. History, however, is never interested in the 

 abstract, but always in the concrete. 



The above is not meant as a depreciation of the theory of 

 evolution. On the contrary, it can be said that the historical 

 character of the theory of evolution proves its importance, 

 because the human mind is never satisfied with merely general 

 and abstract laws about living nature, but also wants to know 

 the origin of life in a concrete way. (In the same way 

 scientists are not satisfied with studying the earth only as an 

 abstract object, they try also to discover its cosmic origin.) 

 Nevertheless, it remains true that the historical character of 

 the theory of evolution is one of the main reasons for its 

 peculiar status in biology. It makes it fall outside the scope of 

 the normal experimental means of biology. From this it does 



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