"Darwinism Evolving" is an exploration of the changing nature of a scientific discipline, or as some philosophers of science like to call it, a research programme. The theory of biological evolution by natural selection is especially good, first, because the theory has had radical revisions over the course of its existence. It is also good because it is a focal point of hostility by some who question scientific methods for basically religious reasons. Darwinism is a good entry point for the public to learn more about the nature of science and its relationship to the rest of human society, because of the high motivation behind the topic.
The book is a scholarly text. It is long and complex. No easy-going Stephen Jay Gould essays here. However, it is not poorly written, and it holds ones interest. So for those motivated to learn more about the history of evolutionary theory and the history of science in general, I recommend it. It recognizes and discusses ideas from the more radical "Science Studies" postmodern critique of science, but it's thesis is not from camp. The authors point out where those ideas are useful, and where they go too far.
Darwin, as is well known, argued for the existence of natural selection without even having an exact understanding for how heredity worked. Nevertheless, he put forward such a robust theory that it has survived and flourished. And his original vision was strong enough that later theorists have regularly gone back to his original theory. "The Origin of Species" is still one of the most persuasive arguments for the theory.
This book describes the earlier theories of natural history and shows the context of the original theory. It then studies Darwin's theory itself and its reception by the British society. Darwin's original theory rested on a philosophy of science derived from Newton.
Next, the authors explore the developmental programme of Haeckel and the genetics of Mendel's rediscoverers. They show repeatedly that much of the advances in the theory came from thinkers who were trying to disprove it. They explore how other scientific disciplines evolved from a grounding in Newton to a statistical grounding in Boltzmann. Fisher transforms Darwinism into a statistical science. Dobzhansky turned Fisher into a geographical population vision.
The book then shows how molecular studies again transformed the theoretical underpinning of evolution. Darwinists had to accommodate genetic drift. The book ends with a lengthy discussion of the theory of non-linear dynamics which again offered an alternative to the standard context of evolution. While other writers have moved the discussion beyond non-linear dynamics to the modern interest in evo devo and epigenisis (for example, Sean Carroll's "Endless forms most beautiful," and Lenny Moss's "What genes can't do"), this book is still a very good exploration of the history of Darwinism and its philosophical transformations as the nature of science itself changes.
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