Letter

Limits of Darwinian Liberal Education

To the Editor:

Professor Arnhart [“Darwinian Liberal Education,” volume 19, number 4] presents to us “Darwinism” as the unifying theory of human endeavor for use as the keystone of liberal education. He discusses this as if we are all agreed as to what it is without ever defining it in his article. The same was true in the capstone evolution course I took and received an A+ in as a biology major. A hodgepodge of possible mechanisms hardly qualifies as a unifying theory. The chief deficiency of this hodgepodge is its inability to predict future changes. If, to be Humean, all of the billiard balls are lined up in such-and-such a way, past experience should tell us where they will go when struck. Arnhart’s facile solution to such difficulties is to call upon “emergent evolution,”