Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Evolution and the Meanings of Life

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by Daniel C. Dennett

Simon & Schuster Trade

Due/Published May 1996, 586 pages, paper

ISBN 068482471x

In this groundbreaking and very accessible book, Daniel C. Dennett, the acclaimed author of Consciousness Explained, demonstrates the power of the theory of natural selection and shows how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of our place in the universe. Following Darwinian thinking to its logical conclusions is a risky business, with pitfalls for everybody. Creationists and others who reject evolution are not the only ones to fall into the traps. Many who accept the validity of Darwin's conclusions hesitate before their implications and distort his theory, fearful that it is politically incorrect or antireligious, or that it robs life of all spirituality. Dennett explains the scientific theory of natural selection in vivid terms, and shows how it extends far beyond biology.

Review

This book is a clear-eyed look at the tension between science and religion generated by Darwin's theory of evolution. Convinced that the Darwinian Revolution was not merely scientific, but also philosophical, Dennett examines the many ways in which Darwinism upsets our traditional assumptions about mind, meaning, morality and design. Dennett begins by examining Darwin's challenges to Locke and Hume's views on thought and the source of design in nature. Plunging right into the "heresy" of Darwin's revolution, Dennett shows how Darwinism conflicts with traditional belief about Mind (or a Higher Power) as creator and the "Argument from Design". Dennett claims that Darwin laid the ground for the concept of Artificial Intelligence (unthinkable, Dennett thinks, under Locke's doctrine of the primacy of mind) and fertilized for the soil for non-teleological explanations of existence. Dennett shows how far Darwin moves us from the concept of a "final Cause." Dennett addresses contemporary disputes in biological thought and responds in length to Stephen Jay Gould.