|Progress: Progress is an everyday expression for the positive assessment of a state change with regard to an implicitly or explicitly assumed goal. In the sciences, one speaks more neutrally, e.g. of a progressive course of disease. This refers to a combination of more or less typical stages in a time course. The expression "progress" is not applied when a course is entirely untypical. See also history, Enlightenment, process, science._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. |
Books on Amazon
Regress: e.g. towards the end of the 19th century, the theory that the "nuclein" is the genetic material in favor of the proteins was rejected. That was a mistake.
E.g. the representatives of the typologically saltationist tendency (Bateson and de Vries) rejected the predominantly Darwinian concept of gradual evolution in populations. (This was also a mistake.)
Science/Mayr: most of the principles and theories of today's science have been unshaken for 30, 50, or 100 years.
Progress/Evolution/Mayr: is it permissible to interpret changes in the history of life as progress? This depends on the terms and the definition of progress. Neither in industry nor in the animated world there are any finalistic forces or mechanistic determinism. Progress simply results from the simple Darwinian principle of variation and selection.
However, residents of niches have repeatedly experienced a seemingly backward development!
In the history of life there is simply no reference to a universal tendency or ability for evolutionary progress. It is merely a by-product._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution.
Das ist Biologie Heidelberg 1998