An Evolutionary Perspective on Strengths, Fallacies, and Confusions in the Concept of Native Plants

Abstract

An important, but widely unappreciated, concept in evolutionary biology draws a clear and careful distinction between the historical origin and current utility of organic features.Feathers, for example, could not have originated for flight because five percent of a wing in the early intermediary stages between small running dinosaurs and birds could not have served any aerodynamic function (though feathers, derived from reptilian scales, provide important thermodynamic benefits right away).But feathers were later co-opted to keep birds aloft in a most exemplary fashion.In like manner, our large brains could not have evolved in order to permit modern descendants to read and write, though these much later functions now define an important part of modern utility.Similarly, the later use of an argument, often in a context foreign or even opposite to the intent of originators, must he separated from the validity and purposes of initial formulations.Thus, for example, Darwin's theory of natural selection is not diminished because later racists and warmongers perverted the concept of a "struggle for existence" into a rationale for genocide.However, we must admit a crucial difference between the two cases: the origin and later use of a biological feature, and the origin and later use of an idea.The first case involves no conscious intent and cannot be submitted to any moral judgment.