Evolutionary Biology and Ideology: Then and Now

Abstract

This paper was presented at a conference on 'The Social Impact of Modern Biology', organized by the British Society for Social Responsibility in Science in London, 26-28 November 1970. It will appear in the volume of conference proceedings edited by Watson Fuller—to be published on 21 May 1971 by Routledge & Kegan Paul as The Impact of Modern Biology (hard cover £1.75, paperback £0.50)—and is reprinted by kind permission. Because of the interest it aroused at the time, and the way in which it drew on material from several academic disciplines, we are taking the unusual step of reproducing the paper here so that readers may have the advantage of the extended bibliographical and discursive footnotes, which will not be included in the conference proceedings. The paper was designed basically for an audience of scientists who were assumed to have no knowledge of recent literature on social and historical aspects of science. Dr Young is himself active within the history and philosophy of science, and is working towards a closer relationship with relevant studies in sociology and social anthropology. He makes no claim to a comprehensive knowledge of all the related background literature, nor to having provided here an exhaustive bibliography. This paper is in the nature of a report of work and thought in progress, and a provisional sketch of an emerging point of view. Discussion, criticism and elaboration of the paper's contents, in the form of Notes or Letters, will be welcomed.