Darwinian Politics

by Patrick Appel

Contra Larry Arnhart, who contends that "a Darwinian science of human evolution supports classical liberalism", PZ Myers argues that "to suggest that the science of evolution supports a specific view of the narrowly human domain of politics is meaningless":

Evolution gives us only very general rules for our species. Adapt to the environment, or die. Change is inevitable. No matter what our species does, it will eventually change or die. It’s not necessarily the most uplifting of messages, but there are encouraging lessons within it. Diversity is unavoidable, providing many different avenues our species could follow, and also, that our happiness does not have to descend from our biological limitations; we often work against our predispositions, because the elements of our inheritance that may have worked for a savannah ape must often be expanded upon and redirected to make a modern urban ape thrive. Evolution does not incline us to classical liberalism, it is just one of many options that evolution allows.