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Darwin and the Evolution of Reasons

Darwin and the Evolution of Reasons. Daniel Dennett Biosphere February 14, 2009. Philosophers who weren’t. #1 philosopher who wasn’t. Two Evolutionists. Why was Darwin’s idea so great? It united the world of purposeless causation with the world of meaning.

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Darwin and the Evolution of Reasons

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  1. Darwin and the Evolution of Reasons Daniel Dennett Biosphere February 14, 2009

  2. Philosophers who weren’t

  3. #1 philosopher who wasn’t

  4. Two Evolutionists

  5. Why was Darwin’s idea so great? • It united the world of purposeless causation with the world of meaning. • From physics to ethics and poetry • in one unified perspective

  6. The trickle-down theory of creation . . . • “Obvious” since Homo habilis?

  7. The trickle-down theory of creation . . . • “Obvious” since Homo habilis? • vs the bubble-up theory of creation

  8. An early critic of Darwin summed it up:

  9. In the theory with which we have to deal, Absolute Ignorance is the artificer; so that we may enunciate as the fundamental principle of the whole system, that, IN ORDER TO MAKE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT. This proposition will be found, on careful examination, to express, in condensed form, the essential purport of the Theory, and to express in a few words all Mr. Darwin's meaning; who, by a strange inversion of reasoning, seems to think Absolute Ignorance fully qualified to take the place of Absolute Wisdom in all the achievements of creative skill. --Robert Beverley MacKenzie, 1868

  10. In the theory with which we have to deal, Absolute Ignorance is the artificer; so that we may enunciate as the fundamental principle of the whole system, that, IN ORDER TO MAKE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT. This proposition will be found, on careful examination, to express, in condensed form, the essential purport of the Theory, and to express in a few words all Mr. Darwin's meaning; who, by a strange inversion of reasoning, seems to think Absolute Ignorance fully qualified to take the place of Absolute Wisdom in all the achievements of creative skill. --Robert Beverley MacKenzie, 1868

  11. How could Darwin be right?

  12. Turing’s strange inversion of reasoning

  13. Darwin • IN ORDER TO MAKE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT.

  14. Turing . . . • IN ORDER TO BE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL

  15. Turing . . . • IN ORDER TO BE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL COMPUTING MACHINE,

  16. Turing . . . • IN ORDER TO BE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL COMPUTING MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW WHAT ARITHMETIC IS.

  17. Pre-Turing computers

  18. Darwin and Turing together:two strange inversions • IN ORDER TO MAKE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW HOW TO MAKE IT. • IN ORDER TO BE A PERFECT AND BEAUTIFUL COMPUTING MACHINE, IT IS NOT REQUISITE TO KNOW WHAT ARITHMETIC IS.

  19. We are made of trillions of mindless little robots • and not one of them knows who we are or cares! • But we know. • We care. • How come?

  20. The Eukaryotic Revolution • 2.5 billion years ago: • Simple prokaryotes (bacteria, blue-green algae. . . .)

  21. The Eukaryotic Revolution • 2.5 billion years ago: • One prokaryote was invaded by another prokaryote . . . .

  22. The Eukaryotic Revolution • 2.5 billion years ago: • One prokaryote was invaded by another prokaryote . . . . • And the result was a more complicated cell that was fitter!

  23. Lynn Margulis

  24. Prokaryote invasion → eukaryotes

  25. Eukaryotes are more talented, more versatile.

  26. Sand castles

  27. Amoeba, Difflugia coronata

  28. Amoeba, Difflugia coronata

  29. Amoeba, Difflugia coronata

  30. Eukaryotes • This versatility permitted division of labor • making multi-cellular life possible.

  31. Caddis fly larva

  32. Caddis larva food sieve

  33. lobster trap

  34. What’s the difference? • There are reasons for the arrangement of parts • in the caddis larva’s food sieve • and in the lobster trap. • But the caddis reasons • are not represented anywhere

  35. The free-floating rationalesof evolution: • Cuckoo chick

  36. The free-floating rationalesof evolution: • Cuckoo chick

  37. Natural selection tracks reasons, • creating things that have purposes but • don’t need to know them. • The “Need to Know” principle reigns in the biosphere.

  38. New Caledonian crow • [alt tab]

  39. “animals that represent their goals in the same representational system in which they represent their facts.” • Ruth Millikan, 2000, p170

  40. But they don’t represent the reasons for their goals!

  41. It’s a long way from • to

  42. We are very different from other animals. • Everything is what it is because it got that way. —D’Arcy Thompson (1917) • But it isn’t just about genes!

  43. LUCA Last Universal Common Ancestor

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