Philosophical Challenges in Teaching Evolution

In the infamous Scopes “Monkey trial” of 1925, John Scopes, a substitute high school biology teacher in Tennessee, was prosecuted for violating legislation against the teaching of Darwinian evolution. Since this trial and the film “Inherit the Wind,” that dramatized it, the American South has been stereotyped as antievolutionist, based on a Biblical literalist fundamentalism. While there is certainly some truth to this stereotype, the reality then and now is more complicated. The prosecuting lawyer for the state of Tennessee, for instance, was a former three-time Democratic presidential candidate from Illinois, William Jennings Bryan, who may have argued against evolution on the basis of its conflict with the Bible but also opposed it on the basis of his worries about its apparent implications for human equality (Smith 1966, pp. 59–60). This worry about the political implications of evolution has also been apparent more recently. After the initial publication of his Sociobiology in 1975, with its evolutionary approach to humans, E. O. Wilson was picketed and protested not by Biblical literalists but by activists of the political left, who objected not on the basis of traditional religious beliefs but on the basis of what they believed to be its undermining of progressive ideals against racism, sexism, and fascism in general (Segerstrale 2001). What all this suggests is that the worries many people have about evolution and the teaching of evolution are not always and only based on a commitment to creationism and Biblical literalism. Evolution challenges some of our most deeply entrenched philosophical commitments about human nature. It challenges a widespread belief that humans are somehow exempt from the laws of nature. This challenge in turn naturally raises questions about justification not raised by other less philosophically significant scientific theories. If we want to fully understand the opposition to evolution and the teaching of evolution, we need to understand these philosophical challenges posed by evolution. My interest in addressing these philosophical challenges is motivated partly by my recent experience in the classroom that has seen fewer worries about evolution based on a creationist, Biblical literalism and more based on other issues. It is also motivated by the public positions of many scholars who seem to have reservations about evolution but not on the grounds of a creationist Biblical literalism. Few professional philosophers, for instance, are committed to a traditional religious stance, but many still have seemingly antievolutionary views, especially about humans. Similar attitudes are found in other disciples of the humanities and social sciences. We often take light notice of these other antievolutionary stances, focusing almost exclusively on opposition based on Biblical literalism. But by ignoring these other antievolutionary stances, we might be missing much of what is motivating the Biblical literalists as well. In this essay, I will lay out what I believe to be the broader philosophical challenges facing the teaching of evolution. These challenges lie in the legitimate implications evolution has for human nature and activities and the subsequent demand for greater justification. I will begin with a brief description of the evolution-themed courses I teach and the Evo Edu Outreach (2008) 1:158–164 DOI 10.1007/s12052-008-0029-8