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Reviews

Reviews REVIEWS F. R YAN , 2002. Darwin’s blind spot. Evolution beyond natural selection: i-ix, 1-310. (Houghton Mif in Cy, Boston, New York). Hardbound. ISBN 0-618-11812-8. Price US$ 25.00. A semi-popular book featuring well-documented contents, Ryan’s essay reads like a thriller. The author successfully questions the usual, one-sided approach of (neo-)Darwinism in which everything seems to come down to competition. In the course of an interesting overview of the history of science in the realm of evolutionary thought, traced back from pre-Darwinian times, Ryan presents an overwhelming number of detailed examples that support the alleged opposite of competition, i.e., cooperation. When explaining symbiosis in all its indeed manifold aspects, various cases from the group of the Crustacea are, of course, included: the hermit crab with its sea anemone being one of the more obvious. In a biological sense, the purpose of the book is to Ž rmly establish that cooperation has had, and still has, a place next to competition in the origins of biodiversity past and present. However, as any educated biologist will observe, the two are by no means mutually exclusive: it is only that the phrase “survival of the Ž ttest” apparently evoked a concept of an either intra- or interspeciŽ c struggle for existence in the minds of most people, including scientists. Yet, the mechanism underlying both phenomena, i.e., competition as well as symbiotic cooperation, is what remains the driving force of evolution: a differential reproductive success, also known as Darwinian Fitness ( W ). After all, the inclination or ability to cooperate with another organism in a symbiotic sense constitutes, like any other attribute of the species under concern, a character. If intraspeciŽ cally variable, its various states thus form the required substrate on which classical natural selection can act. This means that the subtitle of the book is somewhat misleading: to recognize symbiosis as a reality entails an extension of the concept of natural selection itself, not something beyond that level. Yet in all, after symbiosis has been neglected or at least underestimated as a factor in biological evolution for a long time, some exaggeration may well be necessary in order to let this concept take its rightful place among evolutionary mechanisms and, as such, Ryan cannot be blamed for having done so. Another aspect of the book is, that the author shows the impact this biological concept of evolution, speciŽ cally in the form of “the survival of the Ž ttest”, has had on human society. Evidently, one of the dangerous spin-offs of science comprises laymen picking up a speciŽ c concept from a discipline they are unfamiliar with and next reshaping that in their own sense and for their own purposes. Thus, Ryan is fully correct in dismissing “social Darwinism” and in proposing that cooperation for mutual beneŽ t, not harsh competition, makes the cornerstone of our society. A solution to the problem would be, of course, to recruit the world’s leaders more often from the pool of biologists: life is the most complex matter of the universe and only we have been trained to oversee this realm and to generate solutions for the most complicated of problems. Simple as this might seem, I fear not many dedicated biologists would be willing to leave their laboratory and their precious research to engage in politics! In all a commendable book though, both for the biologist and the layman, to learn that to cooperate can be as fruitful as to compete: in nature and in human society alike. J. C. VON V AU PEL K LE IN © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Crustaceana 76 (2): 255 Also available online: www.brill.nl http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Crustaceana Brill

Reviews

Crustaceana , Volume 76 (2): 1 – Jan 1, 2003
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
Copyright © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0011-216X
eISSN
1568-5403
DOI
10.1163/156854003321824602
Publisher site
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Abstract

REVIEWS F. R YAN , 2002. Darwin’s blind spot. Evolution beyond natural selection: i-ix, 1-310. (Houghton Mif in Cy, Boston, New York). Hardbound. ISBN 0-618-11812-8. Price US$ 25.00. A semi-popular book featuring well-documented contents, Ryan’s essay reads like a thriller. The author successfully questions the usual, one-sided approach of (neo-)Darwinism in which everything seems to come down to competition. In the course of an interesting overview of the history of science in the realm of evolutionary thought, traced back from pre-Darwinian times, Ryan presents an overwhelming number of detailed examples that support the alleged opposite of competition, i.e., cooperation. When explaining symbiosis in all its indeed manifold aspects, various cases from the group of the Crustacea are, of course, included: the hermit crab with its sea anemone being one of the more obvious. In a biological sense, the purpose of the book is to Ž rmly establish that cooperation has had, and still has, a place next to competition in the origins of biodiversity past and present. However, as any educated biologist will observe, the two are by no means mutually exclusive: it is only that the phrase “survival of the Ž ttest” apparently evoked a concept of an either intra- or interspeciŽ c struggle for existence in the minds of most people, including scientists. Yet, the mechanism underlying both phenomena, i.e., competition as well as symbiotic cooperation, is what remains the driving force of evolution: a differential reproductive success, also known as Darwinian Fitness ( W ). After all, the inclination or ability to cooperate with another organism in a symbiotic sense constitutes, like any other attribute of the species under concern, a character. If intraspeciŽ cally variable, its various states thus form the required substrate on which classical natural selection can act. This means that the subtitle of the book is somewhat misleading: to recognize symbiosis as a reality entails an extension of the concept of natural selection itself, not something beyond that level. Yet in all, after symbiosis has been neglected or at least underestimated as a factor in biological evolution for a long time, some exaggeration may well be necessary in order to let this concept take its rightful place among evolutionary mechanisms and, as such, Ryan cannot be blamed for having done so. Another aspect of the book is, that the author shows the impact this biological concept of evolution, speciŽ cally in the form of “the survival of the Ž ttest”, has had on human society. Evidently, one of the dangerous spin-offs of science comprises laymen picking up a speciŽ c concept from a discipline they are unfamiliar with and next reshaping that in their own sense and for their own purposes. Thus, Ryan is fully correct in dismissing “social Darwinism” and in proposing that cooperation for mutual beneŽ t, not harsh competition, makes the cornerstone of our society. A solution to the problem would be, of course, to recruit the world’s leaders more often from the pool of biologists: life is the most complex matter of the universe and only we have been trained to oversee this realm and to generate solutions for the most complicated of problems. Simple as this might seem, I fear not many dedicated biologists would be willing to leave their laboratory and their precious research to engage in politics! In all a commendable book though, both for the biologist and the layman, to learn that to cooperate can be as fruitful as to compete: in nature and in human society alike. J. C. VON V AU PEL K LE IN © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2003 Crustaceana 76 (2): 255 Also available online: www.brill.nl

Journal

Crustaceana – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2003

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