Evolution for everyone

American evolutionist David Sloan Wilson recently gave a public lecture on evolution in Montreal. Of course, he discussed evolution and concentrated on showing that the theory was applicable in everything.

Overall, I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how he avoided turning his talk into a war of arguments between creationists and evolutionists. Instead his talk explored how the world is built on a framework that is reliant on evolution.

Evolution is easily explained and observable in biology. The contradictions with many religious beliefs explain why there is strong opposition to a theory that champions evolution. But what if the theory was more profound and could be used to explain more than biological changes over time?

Wilson believes that evolution is universal, a way of life or even a school subject of its own, much like philosophy or economics. He also thinks it does not receive the recognition it deserves. "The fragmentation of knowledge explains why spreading evolutionary theory beyond biology is a failure," he said.

He made a couple of interesting statements including one where he claimed that thinking in terms of evolution theory leads to a "kind of transcendent knowledge."

To show his point, he proposed a thought experiments which I will leave you with:

Evolution and morality Take a piece of paper and write the qualities you associate with a vituous person. Then repeat the exercise, but this time write down the qualities you would give to an evil person.

1. What would happen if you place one virtuous person with an evil person on an island?
2. What would happen if you had two separate island? One full of virtuous people and the other filled with evil people?
3. What would happen if one evil person was allowed to go on the virtuous island?

Within the prism of evolution, one can propose answers to all three questions. The thought experiments begs the question: Is group survival more important than individual survival? If so, what would be the make up of the populations on each island after several generations?