1. Darwin’s and Nature's Strategies:
An Art of Controversies and of Living
Anna Carolina Regner
UFRGS – ILEA/GIFHC (Brazil)

2. XXIII World Congress of Philosophy
– Athens, 4th to 10th August 2013 –
Invited Session IS-51:
The Way of Living: Competition,
cooperation and the art of controversies 1
(Chair: Marcelo Dascal)

3. 1. Ontological level: Darwin’s view of
Nature and its strategies or ways of being
(The Origin of Species, 1872)
2. Epistemological level: Darwin’s strategies
in presenting and defending his views (The
Origin of Species, 1872)
3. Ethical level: some consequences for an
art of living (The Origin of Species, 1872;
The descent of Man, 1871)

4. 1.
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS
OF NATURAL SELECTION OR THE
PRESERVATION OF FAVORED
RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
Charles Darwin
6th Edition, 1872

5. OBJECTIVE:
To show HOW species have been modified so as to
acquire that perfection of structure and co-
adaptation which justly excites our admiration;
to gain a clear insight into the means of
modification and co-adaptation (INTRODUCTION)
To show HOW species originate from other
species in Nature (the means of production)
 how are species formed in their natural state?
 how have adaptations and co-adaptations been
perfected in nature?
 how is it that varieties, which Darwin calls
incipient species, become ultimately converted
into good and distinct species?
how are distinct genera formed? (Chapter III)

6. THESIS:
I am convinced that Natural Selection has
been the most important, but not the
exclusive, means of modification
(Introduction)
Over all these causes of Change, the
accumulative action of Selection, whether
applied methodically and quickly, or
unconsciously and slowly but more
efficiently, seems to have been the
predominant Power (Chapter I)

7. Table of Contents
Additions and Corrections to the Sixth Edition
Historical Sketch
Introduction
Chapter I: Variation Under Domestication
Chapter II: Variation Under Nature
Chapter III: Struggle for Existence
Chapter IV: Natural Selection; or The Survival of the Fittest
Chapter V: Laws of Variation
Chapter VI: Difficulties of the Theory
Chapter VII: Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection
Chapter VIII: Instinct
Chapter IX: Hybridism
Chapter X: On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
Chapter XI: On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings
Chapter XII: Geographical Distribution
Chapter XIII: Geographical Distribution--Continued
Chapter XIV: Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings--Morphology;
Embryology; Rudimentary Organs
Chapter XV: Recapitulation and Conclusion
Glossary of Scientific Terms

8. THE STRUCTURE OF THE “ONE LONG ARGUMENT”
HISTORICAL SKETCH – this situates Darwin’s theory within
the evolutionary tradition
INTRODUCTION – objectives; summary of the investigation
and of its structure; general argument
CHAPTERS I-V - theoretical foundations
CHAPTERS VI-XIV - corroboration of the explanatory power
of the principle of natural selection
Treatment of difficulties (CHAPTERS VI-IX)
Transformation of the apparently unfavorable
evidence into favorable (CHAPTER X)
Exploration of those cases clearly favorable to
Darwin’s theory (CHAPTER XI-XIV)
CHAPTER XV – general review and evaluation of the “one
long argument”

9. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
 NATURE
“... it is difficult to avoid
personifying the word
Nature; but I mean by
Nature, only the
aggregate action and
product of many
natural laws, and by
laws the sequence of
events as ascertained
by us.” (Darwin, 1872,
p. 63)
 NATURAL SELECTION
“I have called this principle, by which
each slight variation, if useful, is
preserved, by the term Natural
Selection, in order to mark its relation
to man's power of selection. But the
expression often used by Mr. Herbert
Spencer of the Survival of the Fittest is
more accurate, and is sometimes
equally convenient.” (Darwin 1872, 49)
“This preservation of favourable
individual differences and variations,
and the destruction of those which are
injurious, I have called Natural
Selection, or the Survival of the
Fittest.” (Darwin 1872, 63)

10.  “Nature, if I may be allowed to personify the
natural preservation or survival of the fittest,
cares nothing for appearances, except in so far
as they are useful to any being. She can act on
every internal organ, on every shade of
constitutional difference, on the whole
machinery of life. Man selects only for his own
good: Nature only for that of the being which
she tends. ” (Darwin, 1872, p. 65)

11.  Natural Selection, as we shall hereafter see, is a
power incessantly ready for action, and is
immeasurably superior to man's feeble efforts, as the
works of Nature are to those of Art (Darwin1872, 49)
 It may metaphorically be said that Natural Selection
is daily and hourly scrutinizing, throughout the
world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that
are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good;
silently and insensibly working, whenever and
wherever opportunity offers, at the improvement of
each organic being in relation to its organic and
inorganic conditions of life (Darwin1872,65-66)

12.  Thus, from the war of nature, from
famine and death, the most exalted
object we are able of conceiving,
namely, the production of the
higher animals, directly follows.
(Darwin 1872: 429)

13. LUTA PELA EXISTÊNCIA
“Owing to this struggle, variations, however
slight and from whatever cause proceeding,
if they be in any degree profitable to the
individuals of a species, in their infinitely
complex relations to other organic beings
and to their physical conditions of life, will
tend to the preservation of such individuals,
and will generally be inherited by the
offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have
a better chance of surviving, for, of the many
individuals of any species which are
periodically born, but a small number can
survive.” (Darwin 1875, 49)

14. The Term, Struggle for Existence, used in a large sense
I should premise that I use this term in a large and metaphorical sense
including dependence of one being on another, and including (which is more
important) not only the life of the individual, but success in leaving progeny.
Two canine animals, in a time of dearth may be truly said to struggle with each
other which shall get food and live. But a plant on the edge of a desert is said to
struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to
be dependent on the moisture. A plant which annually produces a thousand
seeds, of which only one of an average comes to maturity, may be more truly
said to struggle with the plants of the same and other kinds which already
clothe the ground. The mistletoe is dependent on the apple and a few other
trees, but can only in a far-fetched sense be said to struggle with these trees,
for, if too many of these parasites grow on the same tree, it languishes and dies.
But several seedling mistletoes, growing close together on the same branch,
may more truly be said to struggle with each other. As the mistletoe is
disseminated by birds, its existence depends on them; and it may methodically
be said to struggle with other fruit-bearing plants, in tempting the birds to
devour and thus disseminate its seeds. In these several senses, which pass into
each other, I use for convenience' sake the general term of Struggle for
Existence (Chapter III, p. 50)

15. Nature as a system
PNS
Struggle for existence
* variability
* extinction
* regularities
* heredity
* “Geometrical ratio
of increase”
* variability’s
tendency to
continue
* individual
differences
* variations

16. 2. EXPLANATORY PROCEDURES and
STRATEGIES
 Observation and experiment
 Subsumption of facts under rules
 “Examplary” case studies
 Diagrams
 Illustrations
 Calculations (tabulations)
 Comparisons
 Analogies
 Use of metaphors
 Use of imagination
 Diversified sources of information
 Deductive arguments

17. DARWIN’S STRATEGIES
 The comparison between conflicting opinions
 The whole-part movement
 The theory’s explanatory power as a whole
 The interplay of the actual and the possible
 The treatment of difficulties/ objections / exceptions
Transforming objections in cases to be dealt with within the
larger body of the theory
“Relativizing” their initial impact
Revealing they are only “apparent” difficulties
 In most cases, Darwin does not offer an isolated argument
that may be conclusive
 The revolutionary role of his theory
 Appeal to our ignorance (and other more or less týpical
rhetorical devices)

18. THE CENTRAL ROLE OF THE THEORY OF
CONTROVERSIES:
 Darwin starts by exposing his ideas in a dialogical
frame directed to the comparison of conflicting
opinions – he invites the reader to evaluate his “one
long argument” by carefully considering the reasons
and facts for both sides of each question
 explanation refers to a ‘supposition’ (‘view’, hypothesis,
principle, or theory, in Darwinian terms) which allows us
to see facts in a certain way.
 explanation as a ‘comparison’ between the explanatory
powers of opposing views
 explanation as ‘giving reasons’

19.  In many passages of the Origin, Darwin presents his
theory as highly probable, or the best explanatory
alternative (it belongs to the realm of the ‘opinable’, to
the realm of ‘soft rationality’);
 or the only one that answers the questions proposed according
to ‘scientific’ standards (but at Darwin’s time, controversies
were not ranked as an official scientific standard)
 ‘soft’ rationality seems to be more in accordance with an
evolutionary view of rationality, while ‘hard’ rationality can be
understood as a more rigid niche within a more plastic and
adaptive milieu.
 Darwin’s argumentation provides a large array of examples of
the ‘logic of presumptions’, of flexible but convincing
procedures, in the light of argumentative strategies closer to
‘the Aristotelian logic of dialectics and rhetoric’.

20.  The role of contextual factors in Darwin’s
argumentation – these factors are pragmatic because
the meaning of what is intended in the argumentation
needs to be detected and this detection must be
evaluated by taking into account the local situation, its
linguistic and non-linguistic components, how this local
situation is related with its broader context of inquiry,
the way language is used in the debate and what this
use may contextually indicate, the co-texts, and the
more or less circumstantial indicators of what is at
stake in the debate. It is not just a matter of following
standard rules. Darwin constantly reminds the reader
that there is no single fact which cannot be seen in a
way different from his:

21.  Darwin’s procedures are not limited to an array of pre-
established rules and they should be evaluated in terms of
the explanatory power of his theory ‘as a whole’;
 Darwin developed his rich argumentation without previously
sketching any particular model, and that to analyse his
argumentation here does not mean to put it into a previously
tailored straightjacket.
 In the development of Darwin’s ‘one long argument’
we find different types of debates as those comprised
under ‘discussion’, dispute’, ‘controversy’, and ‘self
debate’ - respectively represented by Darwin x
Hooker on migration x theory of continental
extension, Darwin x Mivart on the origin x genesis of
species, Darwin x Wallace on the meaning of natural
selection, and the lasting debate between God and
Science

22.  Darwin’s case shows how valuable the study of ‘real’
argumentative cases can be in order to better understand
argumentative theories, and, in turn, how illuminating ‘real’
argumentative cases are in order to enrich the typologies of the
theories of argumentation in the light of their application to
‘real’ cases.
 Many of the moves listed in Dascal’s theory of
controversies are extremely helpful for analysing
Darwin’s argumentation:
a ‘slippery slope’ argument often used in deliberation; a
petitio principii argument (‘p, therefore p’), which is not
logically invalid but is informatively useless and may be a
sub-type of tu quoque arguments or example of an ad
hominem argument; the use of sequential structure,
recurrent argumentative patterns (as structuring the
argument in such a way that first a point is (partially)

23. conceded to the opponent, then an authority praised by the
opponent is called on, and finally a complete reversal of the
opponent’s charge is performed; the use of ‘yes, but’ clauses; the
use of clauses like ‘we agree on’ in order to obtain concessions
from the other party or to draw limits to the domain of dispute;
recurrent attempts to define ‘what is our present question’ and
then allocate the burden of proof to one contender or the other),
the use of the opponent’s words to rebut him/her, the fallacy of
equivocation (‘you changed my proposition’); boiling the
controversy down to ‘a matter of definition’; criticizing the
opponent for departing from ordinary language, or for
attributing different meanings to the same word, or for making
‘merely verbal’ objections (Dascal and Cremaschi 1999: 1129-
1172, 1134, 1135, 1141-1143, 1146-1149).

24. FACTS AND SPECIAL ARGUMENTS PARTICULARLY
FAVORABLE TO DARWIN’S THEORY – THE
EXPLANATORY POWER OF PNS:
 conceptual questions: PNS clarifies difficulties in defining
‘species’ and ‘variety’
 empirical regularities (e.g. regularities discussed in chapter
II)
 principles
 conceptual and methodological question: a ‘natural system’
arrangement
 maxims for scientific practice (e.g: “Natura non facit
saltum”)
 beauty in Nature
 the relativist nature of a criterion for perfection
 unity of laws

25.  particular facts which may seem strange become ordinary
facts and they can be anticipated
 cases at first listed as difficulties to Darwin’s theory become
evidence for its explanatory superiority
 facts which are clearly favorable to the explanatory
superiority of Darwin’s theory like those of Geographical
Distribution , Classification, Morphology, Embryology
(these facts are inexplicable by ‘Creationism”
 (compatibility of Darwin’s theory with principles of human
rationality in general and scientific in particular)
 Darwin’s theory does not hurt religious feelings

26. 3. NATURE “SUBJECTIVIZED” /
SUBJECT “NATURALIZED”
 A VIEW OF “NATURE”
 MECHANISM
 TELEOLOGY
 A VIEW OF “HUMAN NATURE”
NEW NATURALISM
NEW RATIONALISM
NEW THEORY OF EMOTIONS

27.  Will, consciousness, and intention the
development of the higher faculties
 the frontiers between what we call reason, learning
(habit) and instinct are not always clear
 “a small dose of judgment or reason , as Pierre
Huber expresses it, often comes into play, even with
animals which are low on the scale of nature” (The
Origin of Species, 1872, cap. VIII, p. 205).
 A theory of emotions: the comprehension of their
source or origins; the study of the theory of
expressions or the language of emotions

28.  Ethics (the noblest aspect of man): I am the supreme
judge of my own conduct “right and wrong”
love and sympathy social instincts
 “Ultimately a highly complex sentiment, its first origin
in the social instincts largely guided by the approbation
of our fellow-men , ruled by reason, self-interest and in
later time by religious feelings, confirmed by instruction
and habit, all combined, constitute our moral sense or
conscience” (The Descent of Man, 1871, 165-1660

29. Morality, that results from natural selection,
comes to interfere with it:
“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon
eliminated; (...). We civilized man, on the other hand, do our
utmost to check the process of elimination; (...).
The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is
mainly an incidental result of the instinct of sympathy, which
was originally acquired as part of the social instincts, but
subsequently rendered (…) more tender and more widely
diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, if so urged by
reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our
nature. (…) hence we must bear without complaining the
undoubtedly bad effects of the weak surviving and
propagating their kind; (…)” (1871: 168-169)