Thinking Beyond Darwin: The Idea of the Type As a Key to Vertebrate Evolution (Renewal in Science) (Renewal in Science)

By Ernst-Michael Kranich

Book Overview

Through the work of Charles Darwin, a great task was set before science--to progress from opinions about evolution to a science of evolution, and reveal the inner laws and driving forces at work in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0940262932
• ISBN13: 9780940262935
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Lindisfarne Books
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

a scientifically- oriented challenge to Darwinism

This book proposes a view of evolution based on the fossil evidence, but which reaches different conclusions than the official view of gradual change through random mutations. The author concentrates specifically on the vertebrates, and argues that in the progression from simpler to more complex(fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal)animals there is a total reorganization of organic functioning,making it unlikely that random mutations could generate changes concurrently enough to be viable. Instead he develops a line of reasoning which attempts to show that organisms develop according to an inner direction , or their "inner lawfulness" rather than totally through the influence of their environment. This difference in viewpoint has large philosophical implications because it suggests that the different forms of life are not simply accidents or contingencies, but point to some directed impulse in nature whereby certain inherent patterns may be called forth by external stimuli. It seemed that in the first part of the book the author was almost diffident about revealing the main thrust of his concepts,as though they might be too unorthodox for comprehension. But after this initial reticence, I felt he did a quite adequate job of explaining them. Overall I found it to be a stimulating read although a little murky in places, and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in these matters.

Nonreligious Expose of Current Evolutionary Theories

If you think that only those with religious motivations find current evolutionary theories inadequate, this book is for you. These German scholars demonstrate that gradual accumulations of mutations does not add up to biological novelty. The abrupt appearance of fossils in the fossil record, as noted by the German paleontologist Otto Schindewolf decades ago, is also recounted. The work of Michael Denton is also mentioned.