Ayala Francisco J
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, 321 Steinhaus Hall, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 May 15;104 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):8567-73. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0701072104. Epub 2007 May 9.
Darwin's greatest contribution to science is that he completed the Copernican Revolution by drawing out for biology the notion of nature as a system of matter in motion governed by natural laws. With Darwin's discovery of natural selection, the origin and adaptations of organisms were brought into the realm of science. The adaptive features of organisms could now be explained, like the phenomena of the inanimate world, as the result of natural processes, without recourse to an Intelligent Designer. The Copernican and the Darwinian Revolutions may be seen as the two stages of the one Scientific Revolution. They jointly ushered in the beginning of science in the modern sense of the word: explanation through natural laws. Darwin's theory of natural selection accounts for the "design" of organisms, and for their wondrous diversity, as the result of natural processes, the gradual accumulation of spontaneously arisen variations (mutations) sorted out by natural selection. Which characteristics will be selected depends on which variations happen to be present at a given time in a given place. This in turn depends on the random process of mutation as well as on the previous history of the organisms. Mutation and selection have jointly driven the marvelous process that, starting from microscopic organisms, has yielded orchids, birds, and humans. The theory of evolution conveys chance and necessity, randomness and determinism, jointly enmeshed in the stuff of life. This was Darwin's fundamental discovery, that there is a process that is creative, although not conscious.
达尔文对科学的最大贡献在于,他通过为生物学引出自然是一个受自然法则支配的、处于运动中的物质系统这一概念,完成了哥白尼式的革命。随着达尔文发现自然选择,生物体的起源和适应性被带入了科学领域。现在,生物体的适应性特征可以像无生命世界的现象一样,被解释为自然过程的结果,而无需诉诸智能设计者。哥白尼革命和达尔文革命可以被视为一场科学革命的两个阶段。它们共同迎来了现代意义上的科学开端:通过自然法则进行解释。达尔文的自然选择理论解释生物体的“设计”及其惊人的多样性是自然过程的结果,即自发产生的变异(突变)通过自然选择逐渐积累。哪些特征会被选择取决于在特定时间和地点碰巧出现的哪些变异。这反过来又取决于突变的随机过程以及生物体的先前历史。突变和选择共同推动了这个奇妙的过程,这个过程从微观生物开始,产生了兰花、鸟类和人类。进化理论传达了机遇与必然、随机性与决定性,它们共同交织在生命的物质之中。这就是达尔文的根本发现,即存在一个具有创造性但并非有意识的过程。