Abstract
Several explicit references are made throughout the French edition of this book to the Darwinian theory of evolution. Indeed, the attempt that was made to summarise it is completely in line with this point of view. It is also an illustration of Theodosius Dobzhansky’s famous citation (above).
Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973)
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Notes
- 1.
The couple heredity/variability ensures a viable form (heredity) by managing “small differences” that do not impede a living thing from functioning properly (necessity), all while ensuring small differences, certain of which will be favourable to the corresponding living things when subjected to environmental variation.
- 2.
The different editions of the texts as well as Darwin’s entire body of work can be found at the website: http://darwin-online.org.uk/
- 3.
We might recall the classic example of the duck-billed platypus; classified as a mammal, it is aquatic and egg-laying and has a beak.
- 4.
I think that it is probably logistical, in a “constant” environment – but this still needs to be demonstrated.
- 5.
Alroy et al., 2008.
- 6.
Robert B. Laughlin (Nobel Prize in Physics, 2005).
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Pavé, A. (2010). Chance and Evolution. In: On the Origins and Dynamics of Biodiversity: the Role of Chance. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6244-7_6
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