Page 106 - The Evolution Impasse 1

104

ver, they ceased being regarded as tran- Marx claimed that the history of huma-
sitional forms because they were very nity was one of conflict, that the existing
th
exceptional specimens. By that time no 19 -century conflict was between wor-
one any longer supported the idea that kers and capitalists, and that the workers
they were the ancestors of terrestrial life would soon rise up and carry out a com-
forms. 128 munist revolution. (See Communism.)
As the evolutionist Maria G. Lava- In order to influence large masses of
nant describes it, people, however, Marx and Engels nee-
Since 1930’s, the Dipneuma assumption ded to give their ideology a scientific ap-
has been put aside gradually. When the pearance. The basic claims made in Dar-
final years of 1950’s were reached, orga- win’s The Origin of Species published in
nisms with double respiratory features
the 19th century represented just such a
was characterized as very exceptional by
supposed scientific basis for Marx and
a paleontology publication known to be a
classic. 129 Engels’ ideas. Darwin maintained that li-
ving things emerged as the result of a
In addition, the fact that the fossil re-
struggle for survival—in other words,
mains of these fish are regarded as being
through dialectical conflict. (See
350 million years old, and have undergo-
Struggle for Survival, the.) Furthermo-
ne no change at all in that time, also re-
re, Darwin rejected religious beliefs by
moved their candidacy as transitional
denying creation; and for Marx and En-
forms. These animals are not transitional
gels, this was an opportunity not to be
links between two species that subsequ-
missed.
ently disappeared, but distinct species
Marx and Engels rejoiced to imagine
that have been alive since very early ti-
that Darwin’s concept of evolution rep-
mes.
resented a scientific backing for their
Dialectics

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the
intellectual founding fathers of commu-
nism, tried to describe their materialist
philosophy in terms of a new method
known as dialectics—the hypothesis that
all progress in the universe is obtained as

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THE EVOLUTION IMPASSE I