Crossword clues for darwinism
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Darwinism \Dar"win*ism\, n. (Biol.)
The theory or doctrines put forth by Darwin. See above.
--Huxley.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1864, from Charles Darwin (1809-1882), whose major works were "The Origin of Species" (1859) and "The Descent of Man" (1871), + -ism.
Wiktionary
Wikipedia
Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also called Darwinian theory, it originally included the broad concepts of transmutation of species or of evolution which gained general scientific acceptance after Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, including concepts which predated Darwin's theories, but subsequently referred to specific concepts of natural selection, of the Weismann barrier or in genetics of the central dogma of molecular biology. Though the term usually refers strictly to biological evolution, creationists have appropriated it to refer to the origin of life, and it has even been applied to concepts of cosmic evolution, both of which have no connection to Darwin's work. It is therefore considered the belief and acceptance of Darwin's and of his predecessors' workâin place of other theories, including divine design and extraterrestrial origins.
English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the term Darwinism in April 1860. It was used to describe evolutionary concepts in general, including earlier concepts published by English philosopher Herbert Spencer. Many of the proponents of Darwinism at that time, including Huxley, had reservations about the significance of natural selection, and Darwin himself gave credence to what was later called Lamarckism. The strict neo-Darwinism of German evolutionary biologist August Weismann gained few supporters in the late 19th century. During the approximate period of the 1880s to about 1920, sometimes called " the eclipse of Darwinism," scientists proposed various alternative evolutionary mechanisms which eventually proved untenable. The development of the modern evolutionary synthesis from the 1930s to the 1950s, incorporating natural selection with population genetics and Mendelian genetics, revived Darwinism in an updated form.
While the term Darwinism has remained in use amongst the public when referring to modern evolutionary theory, it has increasingly been argued by science writers such as Olivia Judson and Eugenie Scott that it is an inappropriate term for modern evolutionary theory. For example, Darwin was unfamiliar with the work of the Moravian scientist and Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel, and as a result had only a vague and inaccurate understanding of heredity. He naturally had no inkling of later theoretical developments and, like Mendel himself, knew nothing of genetic drift, for example. In the United States, creationists often use the term "Darwinism" as a pejorative term in reference to beliefs such as scientific materialism, but in the United Kingdom the term has no negative connotations, being freely used as a shorthand for the body of theory dealing with evolution, and in particular, with evolution by natural selection.
Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection with Some of Its Applications is an 1889 book on biological evolution by Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection together with Charles Darwin. This was a book Wallace wrote as a defensive response to the scientific critics of natural selection. Of all Wallace's books, it is cited by scholarly publications the most.
In the preface to Darwinism, Wallace had used the term pure-Darwinism which proposed a "greater efficacy" for natural selection. The book is notable for defending August Weismann's theory of heredity and rejecting the inheritance of acquired characteristics and the concept of sexual selection which Darwin gave credence to. George Romanes dubbed this view as "Wallaceism", noting that in contrast to Darwin, this position was advocating a "pure theory of natural selection to the exclusion of any supplementary theory." The book is seen as laying the foundation for the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution.
Usage examples of "darwinism".
But if it is inutile, it is not Darwinian, for Darwinism says evolution is utilitarian.
The distinction between Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism is generally believed to lie in the adoption of a theory of natural selection by the younger Darwin and its non-adoption by the elder.
Darwinism of eighty years ago and the Darwinism of to-day becomes immediately apparent, and it also becomes apparent, how important and interesting is the issue which is raised between them.
I may predict with some certainty that before long we shall find the original Darwinism of Dr.
But since the rediscovery of the gene, in 1900, and the flowering of the technology based on it, Darwinism has triumphed.
University of Jena, took to social Darwinism as if it were second nature.
In Austria, more than anywhere else in Europe, social Darwinism did not stop at theory.
Social Darwinism was, not unnaturally, compared with Marxism and not only in the minds of Russian intellectuals.
As a matter of faith, liberals believe: Darwinism is a fact, people are born gay, child-molesters can be rehabilitated, recycling is a virtue, and chastity is not.
William Provine, an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University, calls Darwinism the greatest engine of atheism devised by man.
But the value of Darwinism for atheists is that it is the only way they can explain why we are here.
They cling to Darwinism even as the contrary evidence accumulates, because it allows them to ignore God.
Luckily, Darwinism is a nondisprovable pseudoscience, otherwise, it might be difficult to explain how religion can be an unfit mutation and, at the same time, has won the battle of survival.
Darwinism on Hitler, as well as the pervasiveness of Darwinism among the German intellectual class preceding the rise of Nazi Germany, would merit a small mention in college classrooms.
As we are not writing a teleological argument, but only producing evidence that Darwinism excludes teleology, we cannot follow the details which prove that the wing of the gannet or swift is almost as wonderful and beautiful a specimen of contrivance as the eye of the eagle.