1.

1 Relation of Philosophy with Darwins Theory

Darwins influence upon the biological sciences has been enormous and is widely
recognised as such upon other areas of intellectual life-religious belief for
example rather more controversial likewise his influence upon philosophy.
Darwins theory of natural selection, set out in The Origin of Species was become
outrages common reference in the philosophy world. Evolution theory is the one
of materialism philosophy that arising with others philosopher. During the late
1830s, while constructing the fundamental features of his theory, Darwin was
quite aware of the philosophical and theological implications of his conception of
mind.
To avoid stating how far I believe in Materialism, say only that emotions,
instincts, degrees of talent, which are hereditary are so because brain of
child resembles parent stock. ( cited as Sydow, n.d.)
Darwins theory can be discuss in this section into metaphysic, epistemology,
ethics, logical and esthetical matter to shown the relation of the philosophy.
1.1.1 Metaphysic
Darwins theory of Evolution has also prompted a renewal of theological
reflection on the manner of Gods creative activity and on the way God interacts
with the world. Traditional religious teachings have held that contingent natural
processes (such as the emergence and evolution of living organisms) are by no
means incompatible with divine providence. Christian theologians, for example,
speak of Gods creation of the world as a form of persuasion, as distinct from an
intrusive or coercive intervention. Thus, creation is seen as a form of kenosis
(self-emptying), in which Gods power is seen primarily through self-sacrificial
love. God, in a sense steps back from the created world, in order to allow
something new to come into existence. The created world is given autonomy so
that it may develop into what it is most fully meant to be. Theologian John
Haught maintains that the kenotic understanding of God allows us to make the
following statements:
1) that God is the sole ground of the worlds being; 2) that Gods eternal selfrestraint, by grounding the worlds (relative) autonomy and allowing for its selfcreation, shows God to be more intimately involved with and powerfully effective

in the world than a more immediately directive divine agency would be; 3) that
God acts effectively in the world by offering to it a wide range of autonomously
realizable possibilities within which it can become itself; 4) that God
simultaneously gives the divine self away completely to the world which has by
Gods will been encouraged to develop as something radically other than God;
5) that the phenomena of lifes evolution, including the randomness, the
wandering prodigality, and the enormous amount of time required for the
emergence of complexity and consciousness, become theologically intelligible
when seen in the light of Gods self-limiting and persuasive love; and finally, 6)
that the sufferings,

struggles and achievements of the evolving world

nonetheless take place within Gods own experience, not outside of it: Gods
compassionate feeling and remembering of the sufferings, struggles, and
achievements of the entire story of cosmic and biological evolution redeem and
give meaning to everything, though in an always partially hidden way.
It is important to note that a theological account of creation that is
compatible with evolutionary theory offers no scientific proof of religious claims.
Nor can the evolutionary science disprove religious claims. At most, one may
argue that the findings of evolutionary biology and the assertions of religious
faith are not by necessity incompatible. There is a certain ambiguity about the
world as we find it. Whether the world came about by random chance or was
created by a loving God, the world would look just the same. The claims of
religion must be tested and affirmed on other than scientific grounds.

1.1.2 Epistemology
The fundamental principle of the Darwinian Evolutionary Theory is often seen in
the fact that it rejects teleological explanation in biology and replaces it by a
purely causal account for natural phenomena. The causal mechanism is seen in
natural selection, through which organisms become optimally adapted to their
environment,

that

is,

through

which

they

evolve.

The

stronger

form,

"evolutionary epistemology" as its usually known, insists on a much closer

analogy between Darwins account of the history of life and the growth of
knowledge either in the individual or in the species. On one of these, prominent
in the writings of Donald Campbell, the individuals knowledge is conceived as
something like a Darwinian process. Ideas are randomly generated and tested by

experience. Those that are retained are those that survive the process of
selection. A second approach, originally presented by Richard Dawkins, supposes
that there are analogues of the entities whose transmission measures the course
of evolution. Just as there are genes, and just as evolution is recorded in changes
in the frequency of alleles, so too there are memes, and the growth of knowledge
in the species is understood in terms of the spread of memes.
1.1.3 Ethics
In constructing a history of evolutionary ethics, it is only appropriate to start with
Darwin himself. His legacy certainly lies in his contribution to science but
morality was always a topic in which of discussion. In his The Descent of Man
publish in 1871, was give huge attribution and criticism by other philosophers
(Allhoff, 2003). His theory of evolution by natural selection had already gained
substantial

support,

though

certainly

there

were

still

detractors.

Moral

philosophers might find this to be an odd use of the word morality, that morality
itself has nothing to do with the development of humans, or even that morality
need not require humans at all. This matter comes clearly when Francis Galton
describe the finding as heredity from mental and moral characteristic (Galton,
1865) to the public by publishing an article about it.

1.1.4 Logical
1.1.5 Esthetical