Abstract
CONSIDERING that the theories of Darwin and Spencer are among the most important additions ever made to human knowledge, it seems to be a matter of much interest to trace out any occasional glimpses which previous philosophers may have had of the Principles of Natural Selection. In a long note appended by Lord Bolingbroke to his fourlh essay concerning Authority in matters of Religion (octavo edition of the Philosophical Works, 1754, vol. ii. p. 253; quarto edition, 1754, vol. iv. p. 255), he reviews a Memoir by Maupertius printed in the History of the Royal Academy of Berlin, for the year 1746. Speaking of the appearances of design, Lord Bolingbroke says:—“Mr. Maupertius proceeds, and admits, but admits, as it were, for argument's sake alone, that the proportion of the different parts and organs of animals to their wants carries a more solid appearance; and he judges that they reason very ill who assert that the uses to which these parts and organs are applied, were not the final causes of them, but that they are so applied because the animal is so made. Chance gave eyes and ears; and since we have them we make use of them to see and hear. He thinks, however, it may be said, that chance having produced an immense nurnber of individuals, those of them whose parts and organs were proportioned to their wants, have subsisted, whilst those who wanted this proportion have perished and disappeared. Those who had no mouth, for instance, could not eat and live; those who wanted the organs of generation could not perpetuate their species; and thus from the present state of things theists draw an argument which will appear fallacious when it is applied to the possible original of things.”
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JEVONS, W. Maupertius on the Survival of the Fittest. Nature 7, 341 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/007341c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/007341c0
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