The Darwinian Left (Part I)

"She was a student when I was at my first job at Bennington in the 70s, and I saw her up close. And I know what she knows. I mean, she transferred from there, to Yale, and her background in anything is absolutely minimal. She started a career in philosophy, abandoned that, and has been taken as this sort of major philosophical thinker by people in literary criticism. But has she ever made any exploration of science? For her to be dismissing biology, and to say gender is totally socially constructed — where are her readings, her studies? It’s all gameplay, wordplay, and her work is utterly pernicious, a total dead-end." -Camille Paglia on Judith Butler

In those articles, and in another small book I inhlaed over two days I hatched my latest long-term project: to articulate a Dawinian Left. To dispel misunderstandings and stupid extrapolations of evolutionary theory that seem to support an atavistic, conservative, normative world-view. Why do I do this? Because many of my progressive brethern are, when it comes to science, "stupid liberals". If they read enough shitty articles attacking the very foundations of their belifs, then they'll abandon either their liberalism or their engagement with science. I've seen this in dull, stonewalling eyes that slot science in as yet another "discourse", or more perjoratively, "language game". We can't do that. Language games do not, by themselves create enough weapons-grade fissile material to destroy the world, or enough invisible chemicals to poke an Antarctica-sized hole in the ozone layer. So science is not just a language game. Some people seem to think that poking at a few instances where it is (and of course there are such instances, see for example the latest astronomical row over the definition of "planet", which is just semantics) justifies a broader conclusion. Or have they given up on any kind of logical inference? That's stupid. I was drawn to evolutionary theory precisely because it made me uncomfortable: here was something that might change my mind on issues close to me. And I've wrestled with it ever since. And I continue to wrestle with it. So that's what motivates my new quixotic project to reconcile two prima facie incompatible views. It mayb e easier than I think. Maybe it's imposible. What creature will emerge? I don't know. Right now I'm going to go drink.

Consider: "You think you're so goddamn smart youi can just keep your secrets hidden away, but I got news for you. Einstein doesn't rule within these walls--Darwin does."