ABSTRACT
In Chapter 1 I began with a quotation from Popper’s SBW. The context involves a discussion of Bishop Berkeley’s criticism of what he called “the minute philosophers”. In a magnificent summary of what philosophy should be all about, Popper says, “A minute criticism of minute points without an understanding of the great problems of cosmology, of human knowledge, of ethics and of political philosophy and without a serous and devoted attempt to solve them, appears to me fatal” (Popper 1994: 185). The debates over the philosophical implications of evolution involve all of the four main areas of philosophy cited in the above quotation. The fierce debates over its possible negative implications for traditional religious beliefs and theology are too well known to require comment. Most educated people are also aware of the equally intense debates over its possible ethical implications because of late nineteenth-century social Darwinism.
