@Daniel wrote:
> Darwin was appalled by social Darwinism - it is simply not fair to tar him with that brush!
Thank you for your replies. Did you miss my understanding of predation above? The fact is that ecology works to adapt species and individuals to their environments so the whole prospers.
The important thing and this is where I think ecology and evolution differ is that for NeoDarwinism genetic mutation produces change. For ecology environmental change produces changes in species. The most notable example is the extinction of the dinosaurs caused by the change of climate of the earth, not by conflict with other life forms. This climate change also opened many new ecological niches which produced many new species as life forms of many kinds migrated and adapted to the new ecological situations.
Thus ecological evolution, as opposed to Darwinian evolution,. sees the changes if the earth’s surface and climate as the driving forces of evolution including our own, not blind genetic mutation.
In terms of Darwin and Dawkins, we are speaking about ideas and not people. The concept of survival of the fittest, the phrase which Darwin did not coin, but did accept in later editions of The Origin did become the ideological basis of Social Darwinism and Eugenics. I do not know about you but Social Darwinism is still very much alive in Libertarian thinking and politics in the US.
Dawkins uses his scientific theory to justify his new atheism. If his understanding of evolution is wrong, then scientists need to speak out against his views. Since some but only a relatively few seem not to do so, I would say that either they do not disagree or they are so influenced by a siege mentality so that they are afraid to do so. In any case it seems to me that it is my responsibility to speak out against error, regardless of who makes it, and I would certainly not underestimate the influence of Mr. Dawkins, Mr. Dennett, and Co.