A Study of the Remaining Egocentric Features in Darwin’sTheory of Biologi-cal Evolution and its Epistemological Repercussions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69967/07194773.v1i3.97Keywords:
egocentrism, evolutionism, progressivism, non-human animalsAbstract
This work will explain that what I describe as egocentrism permeates into Darwinianevolutionism. Egocentrism is the doctrine that takes ‘ego’as its absolute reference centre. This‘ego’ is referred to modern age where Cartesianism was identified as reason. This concept impliesthe anthropocentric conception, that is to say, conceiving man, with its reason, as the measure ofall things.My purpose is to unveil certain egocentric features found in the theory of evolution and its episte-mological repercussions. I shall maintain that modern egocentrism could not be fully overthrown by the knowledge given by evolutionism and that the theory of evolution itself has been permeatedby egocentric remnants. This can be seen in progressivism, which is present in some of Darwin’sand other evolutionists’ formulations.I shall specifically analyse the notion of progress as an egocentric considering the studies of au-thors Stephen Jay Gould and Michael Ruse. That notion will be examined in relation to Darwin’stheory of biological evolution only to then demarcate it to evolutionary epistemology. Finally, con-clusions regarding both applications of progressivism in relation to egocentrism will be outlined.
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