John Dupré is a philosopher who interests himself in biology. In this concise book he seeks to answer the question who, other than biologists, cares about evolution. In doing so, he betrays an antipathy to the supernatural, to evolutionary psychology, which he does not believe is science, to his perceived excessive application of genetics to biology, and finally to reductionism as applied to living systems. His dislikes stem from his views on the application of evolution to Homo sapiens.

No right-thinking biologist will surely quibble with Professor Dupré in believing that we can regard evolution by natural selection as the best current theory of our origin. There is dispute as to just what is selected – groups of organisms, developmental systems or individual genes. Professor Dupré is not enamoured of the last, noting in connection with the view that genes form a plan for an entire organism: “As the blueprint metaphors make explicit, information often carries semantic connotations. But of course there is nothing semantic about DNA.” With these infelicities, we may also note the absence of epigenetics from this book.

One of the few things Professor Dupré shares with Richard Dawkins is the view that evolution is an ever-present threat to organised religion, by providing a pattern for the development of life on earth which obviates the need for supernatural belief. His thesis on theism is highly readable, and includes quotes from William Paley, of watchmaker fame, and Charles Darwin on the same.

Professor Dupré also shares with Dawkins a strong belief in the forces of cultural evolution on H. sapiens, designated as memes in Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene. The concept owes its origins to Herbert Spencer in the nineteenth century, and gained the approbation of both Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. There is no doubt that in this regard, H. sapiens far surpasses other species, although records of parent-to-offspring learning in other species are increasing. Such massive acquired talents do suggest a lesser role for evolutionary traits in human behaviour. To his credit, Professor Dupré avoids citing the fact that our DNA is 98.4% identical to that of chimpanzees in support of this – indeed, he justly queries the meaning of the figure. But Seymour Benzer has shown that certain behaviours can be selected for in the diminutive brain of Drosophila melanogaster. Fruit flies may be somewhat different to humans, but we share much molecular biology. Professor Dupré treads delicately in the matter of race in humans, noting that there are ecotypic physiological differences between human groups which may account for, e.g. the predominance of successful long distance runners from East Africa in the recent Olympic Games. Professor Dupré provides a balanced account of a vexed subject.

Professor Dupré demonstrates his distaste for reductionism applied to living organisms. Nearly a hundred years ago, Sir Oliver Lodge in a foreword to the 1906 edition of Thomas Henry Huxley’s Man’s Place in Nature & Other Essays noted: “Let it be understood, therefore, that science is one thing, and philosophy another: that science most properly concerns itself with matter and motion, and reduces phenomena, as far as it can, to mechanism….but when on the strength of that achievement, it seeks to blossom into a philosophy….when it endeavours to conclude that its scope is complete….that nothing exists in the universe but mechanism….then it is becoming narrow and bigoted and deserving of rebuke.” Professor Dupré’s rebuke to some biologists is to say that the metabolic interactions within organisms are too complex to allow their dissection and reconstitution. But would Professor Dupré see computer modelling, now widely used to simulate metabolic processes, as reductionism? I suspect not. But we can all surely support his view that we must be humble in our ignorance. It is precisely the unknown which drives research and makes science so fascinating to the informed observer. This is a thought-provoking book, well indexed, with supplementary reading lists and good value at the price, but you may need a dictionary to curl up with it.

John Marsden