EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY 



value of science is the ability to generalize observa- 

 tions in laws which will permit us to predict future 

 events. In this respect evolution has absolutely failed. 

 We know nothing about the method of evolution ; we 

 know nothing about the cause of variation; we can- 

 not even guess the characteristics of future species. 



For nearly a century and a quarter, attention has 

 been focused on the causes and methods of variation, 

 yet we have made no progress towards a solution. 

 Lamarck's hypothesis of the inheritance of acquired 

 traits may prove to be a fact, but it is bound up in- 

 separably with the ontological theory of design and 

 with the hyperphysical element of desire. Spencer's 

 philosophical dictum that homogeneity passes to het- 

 erogeneity is applicable to any theory of evolution, as 

 it specifies no method and is directly contradicted by 

 the pronounced persistence of undifferentiated or ho- 

 mogeneous forms of life; his famous phrase, the sur- 

 vival of the fittest, is but reasoning in a circle for, if 

 the fittest alone do survive, then all existing individ- 

 uals are necessarily fit to survive and the eugenists' 

 worry about Jukes and imbeciles is futile; they are 

 alive and therefore fit. Malthus's struggle for exist- 

 ence and Darwin's natural selection may explain the 

 death of individuals and the disappearance of some 

 species, but biologists now agree that they are inef- 

 fective as a means of producing species. 



At the present time, biologists are in the position 

 of having disproved all former hypotheses of evolu- 



l 305 3 



