Darwin's Legacy | Lecture 4

October 13, 2008 lecture by Daniel Dennett for the Stanford Continuing Studies course on Darwin's Legacy (DAR 200). Dr. Dennett presents the philosophical importance of Darwin's theory of evolution. The lecture is concluded with a panel discussion with Hank Greely and Chris Bobonich.

Stanford Continuing Studies:
http://csp.stanford.edu

Stanford University:
http://www.stanford.edu/

Stanford Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/stanford

Category:

Education

Tags:

• history
• science
• biology
• social
• humanities
• philosophy
• education
• evolution
• nature
• origin
• of
• species
• natural
• selection
• life
• organism
• environment
• anthropology
• human
• ancestry
• creationism
• eukaryotes
• meme
• genes
• Alan
• Turing
• computer

[dgumbrecht]

Darwin wrote that 150 years ago. Evolutionary theory has progressed greatly since then. We have observed speciation now, and we have observed benficial mutations many times.

[RCRhythm]

valu777,

Speciation is a CORE scientific theory; it's not a frontier theory, and definitely not a fringe theory. It is substantiated by literally tens of thousands of educated working professionals who don't even know each other.

Are you really trying to debunk it? And if so, why not heliocentrism, too? Maybe gravity? Why evolution? Does it threaten some religious belief that you have?

We call that "insecurity."

Just sayin'.

[potpie921]

excellent vid!

[thebigfootme]

i completely agree! such a nice lecture!

[agapitoflores001]

I got nearly convinced with this lecture.

[Jestlow]

Dennett and Darwin:

Their beards are evidence of convergent evolution.

[petion2010]

@ManyInfiniteComments Yet for the truly religious minds, evidence means nothing. It's fanaticism to the highest. The more evidence there is for something, the less they accept it. The less proof there's for something, the more they convince it's true. Using logic and rationality to argue a point, the less sense it makes. Claiming you're inspired by god, the more they believe your words. These people are too used to accept thing on the basis of authority.

[ManyInfiniteComments]

Darwin's theory has single handedly brought down thousands of theories to its knees, from humanities, social sciences, philosophies, and beyond, subjects that refuse to incorporate evolution will eventually be debunked. This is not to say that we know all the mechanisms that affect evolution, but those dimensions that we do know fit perfectly well with the theory. Dennett does a wonderful job advocating the reality rather than rely on superstition and gaps to explain our diversity.

[unassumption]

Natural Selection may not disprove god but provides a means by which order could get here without a designer; similarly, it shows how all the behaviors moral facts were usually brought forth to explain could be explained without objective morals.

Knowing the origin of the desires and emotional reactions that are at the centre of moral theories, could shed new light on those concepts.