Darwinism and Eastern Philosophies

English naturalist and biologist Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is regarded as one of the most influential figures in Western Hemisphere. His book, On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, revolutionized Western thought.

Darwin's theory is based on the idea of natural selection. Organisms with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. This is largely due to the fact that variation exists within all populations of organisms. Throughout the lives of the individuals their genomes interact with their environments to cause random mutations arise in the genome, which can be passed on to their offspring. Because individuals with certain variants of the trait tend to survive and reproduce more than individuals with other less successful variants, the population evolves.

While most scientists came to accept evolution as descent with modification, not all agreed with Darwin's assertion that natural selection is the primary, but not exclusive, means of modification. Some favored competing explanations that assigned a lesser role to natural selection. One critique is that Darwin placed too much emphasis on the "struggle for existence" and "the survival of the fittest" among individuals, and did not give sufficient consideration to the role of coexistence, interdependence and cooperation within a species, and the importance of ecological balance between species in the evolution of species. (See Pluralism vs. Monism.)

While Darwin's theory has given us a new conception of the world of life and revolutionized the whole study of nature, it also had adverse impacts. One of the negative consequences was the misguided use of the concepts of "struggle for existence" and "survival of the fittest" among individuals to human societies by some people in the West. This has resulted in ideologies such as social Darwinism, exceptionalism, racism, individualism, law of the jungle theory, zero-sum competition, and unipolar hegemony, etc., that pose a threat to human solidarity, social harmony, and world peace. The harms these ideologies have done to mankind should not be underestimated, as Western civilization ever since Darwin was built on power, warfare, conquest, colonization, genocide, exploitation, and looting of other peoples, with Darwin's fellow countrymen taking a prominent role. These ideologies have also fuelled Western capitalism that led to brutal competitions, severe inequality, depletion of natural resources, destruction of ecological balance, and damage to the environment. (See Democracy vs. Plutocracy.)

Fortunately Darwinism did not have as much an impact in the Eastern Hemisphere, where the prevailing philosophies, such as Confucianism and Taoism, value the unity of nature and man, the natural way of life, and the harmonious relationship and win-win cooperation between nations and people. While it is too early to draw conclusions about the merits of Eastern and Western philosophies, the rise of the East and the decline of the West in our times seems to suggest that collectivism and cooperation, not individualism and competition, are more conducive to the success of the species. This is also attested by tango. (See Philosophies that Separate Two Different Worlds.)