(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The authors argue that Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection cannot explain evolution. While not denying the validity of evolution itself, they claim that the logic underlying natural selection (the survival of the fittest under changing environmental pressure) is fundamentally flawed. According to Darwin, randomly generated traits account for variation in a population, the fitness of which the environment then selects either for or against. Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini argue that much more is going on internally than random mutations. They claim that selection by external forces does not account for the presence of traits that do not affect a creature’s fitness, and argue that selection implies a false level of intelligence in what is doing the selecting. Jerry Fodor is a professor of philosophy and cognitive science at Rutgers University. Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, a former biophysicist and molecular biologist, is now a professor of cognitive science at the University of Arizona.
