But of course, whatever “nature” may be, it is not a sentient creature with a will, and any attempt to understand the actual operation of evolutionary processes must be freed of its metaphorical baggage. “Natural” selection is human selection writ large. Is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good….ĭarwin, quite explicitly, derived this understanding of the motivating force underlying evolution from the actions of plant and animal breeders who consciously choose variant individuals with desirable properties to breed for future generations. The most famous and influential example is Darwin’s invention of the term “natural selection,” which, he wrote in On the Origin of Species, It is not only the general public that they confuse, but their own understanding of nature that is led astray. Nothing creates more misunderstanding of the results of scientific research than scientists’ use of metaphors. A pair of peppered moths superimposed on a photograph of Sheffield, England, after the Industrial Revolution.
