On Experimental Approaches and Evolution A Comment

Two conceptual revolutions, which occurred a long time ago, shaped theface of modern research in the life sciences. The first was the mechanisticrevolution, the cornerstones of which were formulated mainly by Rene Descartesin the seventeenth century. Animals, said Descartes, are machines governed bythe same laws that govern any other physical object under the Sun. (Man, headded, has in addition a soul, that resides in the machine and interacts withit.) It is Descartes’ mechanistic views that paved the way to thereductionistic approach characterizing most, if not all, of the work carried outtoday in biology laboratories. The second major revolution culminated twocenturies later. The living world is not static, but undergoes continuousalterations and innovations; species were not created as such in the beginningof time but evolved from ancestral forms. Man is no exception. The clear-cut,poetic events of the third, fifth and sixth days of creation, as depicted inGenesis, were thus replaced by a seemingly cold and dry scientific alternative.For this revolution, the main responsibility lies with Charles Darwin —although he was not the first to initiate it.