PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



of the scientific problems does not automatically solve the 

 philosophical issue. The solution of the former does throw 

 important light on the latter, but the philosophical problem, 

 whether or not a living being has a higher status, has to be 

 considered on its own merits as a philosophical problem. Since 

 we have considered this philosophical problem, let us examine 

 now what light it throws on the different philosophical ques- 

 tions which in the past were rightly or wrongly connected 

 with the theory of evolution. 



The main question to which all other problems can be 

 reduced is whether evolution does not reduce the appearance 

 of higher forms of life, especially of man, to chance-events. 

 It seems as if the driving forces of evolution are entirely blind 

 and. consequently, everything that appears in the course of 

 evolution would be the result of mere chance. This idea 

 seduced many opponents of evolution to use the theory of 

 probabilities in refutation of evolution. They argued that 

 according to that theory the probability that a complicated 

 organism came into existence by chance must be calculated as 

 zero. -5 As a matter of fact, however, this kind of calculations 

 is pure nonsense for the simple reason that we do not know 

 enough about the natural affinities of molecules to form higher 

 structures to have a serious basis for these calculations. The 

 stability of a living organism demonstrates that molecules 

 have such affinities. Therefore, if abiogenesis has taken place, 

 chance may have played a role, but certainly not the most 

 important one. The most important factor must have been the 

 natural affinity of molecules to form higher structures in 

 certain circumstances. Consequently, if biochemists try to trace 

 the course which abiogenesis has taken, they think in terms 

 of stabilities of structures, tendencies to form more complicated 

 structures, etc.'' In other words, they try to discover what 

 real potencies molecules have and in what circumstances these 

 potencies will be actualized. 



By the same token if evolutionists speak about random- 

 distribution of mutations, this does not mean that evolution 

 is just a chance-event. For which mutations are favorable 



Cf. Le Comte du Noiiy, Human Destiny, New York, 1947, III. 



Cf. A. I. Oparin, The Origin of Liie on the Earth, London, 1957, 



(translated from the Russian). 



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