Millstein Roberta L
Department of Philosophy, One Shields Avenue, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Stud Hist Philos Biol Biomed Sci. 2012 Sep;43(3):627-33. doi: 10.1016/j.shpsc.2012.05.001. Epub 2012 Jun 7.
In Darwin's Sacred Cause, Adrian Desmond and James Moore contend that "Darwin would put his utmost into sexual selection because the subject intrigued him, no doubt, but also for a deeper reason: the theory vindicated his lifelong commitment to human brotherhood" (2009: p. 360). Without questioning Desmond and Moore's evidence, I will raise some puzzles for their view. I will show that attention to the structure of Darwin's arguments in the Descent of Man shows that they are far from straightforward. As Desmond and Moore note, Darwin seems to have intended sexual selection in non-human animals to serve as evidence for sexual selection in humans. However, Darwin's account of sexual selection in humans was different from the canonical cases that Darwin described at great length. If explaining the origin of human races was the main reason for introducing sexual selection, and if sexual selection was a key piece of Darwin's anti-slavery arguments, then it is puzzling why Darwin would have spent so much time discussing cases that did not really support his argument for the origin of human races, and it is also puzzling that his argument for the origin of human races would be so (atypically) poor.
在《达尔文的神圣事业》一书中，阿德里安·德斯蒙德和詹姆斯·摩尔认为，“达尔文会全力以赴地研究性选择，这无疑是因为这个主题吸引着他，但还有一个更深层次的原因：该理论证明了他毕生对人类兄弟情谊的信念”（2009年，第360页）。在不质疑德斯蒙德和摩尔证据的情况下，我将对他们的观点提出一些疑问。我将表明，关注达尔文在《人类的由来》中的论证结构会发现，这些论证远非直截了当。正如德斯蒙德和摩尔所指出的，达尔文似乎有意将非人类动物的性选择作为人类性选择的证据。然而，达尔文对人类性选择的阐述与他详细描述的典型案例不同。如果解释人类种族的起源是引入性选择的主要原因，并且如果性选择是达尔文反奴隶制论证的关键部分，那么令人费解的是，达尔文为何要花这么多时间讨论那些并不能真正支持他关于人类种族起源论证的案例，同样令人费解的是，他关于人类种族起源的论证为何会如此（非典型地）薄弱。
