352 RAYMOND J. NOGAR 



concept can be seen. Not only does a process of evolution add 

 a dynamic space-time dimension to our understanding of the 

 cosmos, but the evolutionary theory also provides a concept 

 of synthesis for many disparate scientific approaches. Beckner 

 observes: 



Evolution theory is of philosophical interest because of the way it 

 integrates principles of the most diverse sorts, but, in addition, it is 

 of interest because here we find the most diverse patterns of concept 

 formation and explanation unified in a single theory .^^ 



For many scientists and observers, this quality of unifying 

 the work of many sciences, of integrating the explanations and 

 approaches of diverse disciplines, is the outstanding contribu- 

 tion of evolutionary theory. It is commonly said that Darwin 

 did for biology and the life sciences what Newton did for 

 classical physics. The very crucial question is raised by Beck- 

 ner, and others at the Darwin Convention, whether, in fact, 

 evolutionary theory provides an integration by way of a con- 

 structural model (or series of models) which is able to embrace 

 the research of many sciences, or whether it provides universal 

 laws, like Newton's laws of motion, the laws of conservation 

 of mass and energy, the laws of thermodynamics. Mental con- 

 structs are universalized only in the imagination; universal laws 

 are causal and necessitate the events of which they are causal. 

 If there is a universal cosmic law of evolution (or laws) , then 

 it can be turned into an ultimate philosophical principle of 

 the origins of cosmic entities, as some assert. If there is no 

 universal cosmic law of evolution demonstrated by science, 

 then no such philosophical generalizations are valid and the 

 " fact of evolution," so far as a synthetic principle is concerned, 

 remains a very useful construct but is non-causal, as others 

 assert. The answer to this question is crucial, jor it determines 

 whether philosophies or ideologies ^^ of evolutionism have bases 

 which are scientifically established in the laws of nature. 



^Ubid., p. 160. 



" For useful distinction between a true philosophy and an ideology, see W. O. 

 Martin, Metaphysics and Ideology (Milwaukee, 1959) 



