Darwinismin pimeät ajat (Japani, Ranska)

Mr.K.A.T. kirjoitti:

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DARWINISMIN PIMEÄT AJAT JAPANISSA ja RANSKASSA

Allaolevat lainaukset osoittavat, että Darwinismi ja Darwinin teoriat aika lailla yleisesti jätettiin huomiotta tai jopa kiellettiin Japanissa (biologiassa) ja Ranskassa vielä 1960-70-luvuillakin.
Tottahan Venäjälläkin (Neuvostoliitossa) oli kielletty 1930-60-l. mutta oletan sen, Lysenkoismin, jo tunnetuksi ;).(Olen lukenut Dimitri Shostakovichin ja Anna Buharinan jne muistelmia ja tuli selväksi että 1930-l neukuissa darwinisti ja juutalainen teloitettiin herkästi, vielä nopeammin jos oli sekä-että).

Tosin kreationisteillekin tuo kaikki on suurta yllätystä, hehän eivät tiedä/ tajua, että he saattaisivat olla samalla puolen barrikadia Darwinismin kieltävien kommunistien kanssa samalla kun syyttäävät Darwinia kommunistien pahoista teoista (!?!).

terv. Mr.K.A.T.

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"Dark ages" of Darwinism in Japan and in France
by K.A.T.

These quotes shows that Darwinism, Darwinian theories were quite
neglected or denied in Japan in 1890s-1930s and still generally in
1960s-70s and in France in 1960s-70s. This article concentrates
mainly on Japan.
Of course "Dark ages" were also in Russia 1930s-1960s (Lysenkoism) but it
is already generally more known to You so I won't touch it in this
article. (If You read memoirs of Dimitri Shostakovich and Anna Buharina
etc. then You soon find that in 1930's Russia(Soviet Union) You got easily
executed if You were Darwinist or Jewish, sooner if both).

In abstract "Neglection time periods" Sakura[1] mentions p.341 :
"..Darwinism was introduced in Japan in the late 19th century and
Japanese people readily accepted the concept of evolution because,
lacking Christianity, there was no religious opposition. However, the
theory of evolution was treated as a kind of social scientific tool,
i.e., social Spencerism and eugenigs. Although evolutionary biology
was developed during the late 19th and early 20th century, orthodox
Darwinian theory was neglected for a long time. In the mid 1980s,
sociobiology was introduced but it was ignored and criticized by a large
part of the ecologist-evolutionst community in Japan. This hostile
attitude was due to the absence of Darwinism among these scientists. .."

Sakura[1] says (p.344) "real" evolutionists did not exist in Japan before
WWII (1890s-1930s).
"This situation in biology permitted the dominance of social Spencerism,
not biological Darwinism in Japan. In other words, "real" evolutionists
did not exist in Japan before World War II."

Sakura[1] says on p.345
" 2.2. After WWII: 1940s - 1970s
In this era, the activity of ecologists and evolutionists can be
summarized into three "isms": Lysenkoism, Darwinism and Imanishiism.
In contrast to the former two, Imanishiism is not known widely in
Western countries. This theory was developed by Kinji
Imanishi(1902-1992), a Japanese ecologist, who strongly attacked
Darwinism."

Later on [1] pages 345-346 about Darwinism:
"The second stream of evolutionary biology in Japan after WWII was
the genetics that accompanied Darwinism. Taku Komai(1886-1972) and
Hitoshi Kihra(1893-1986) are two examples of this line. Komai published

an excellent textbook of population genetics, and Kihara carried out a
series of excellent experiments on the genetics of wheat. Both of them
thaught at the Kyoto University, the second oldest national University
in Japan. This "Kyoto School" would produce Motoo Kimura, later founder
of the neutral theory of molecular evolution (Kimura
1968,1983). Unfortunately, the activities of these top-ranking genetics
had little effect on ecologists. Most of the ecologists preferred
Lysenkoism and later Imanishiism(see below). The reason is not clear,
but it may be that many naturalists did not like to struggle through the
equations that appeared in the articles by geneticists. This is even
more clearly the case with respect to laypersons. Non-biologists prefer
the easy and friendly stories written by naturalists. The highly
technical nature of so many publications of population genetics led to
the unpopularity of Darwinian theory in Japan. This was quite
unfortunate."

Some conclusions of mine
-there was some top rank darwinists
-ecologists and laypersons neglected Darwinism due to Imanishiism and
difficult math equations (!)
-popularizing is quite important !
[1] About Imanishiism on p.346:
"Imanishi's theory may be summarized in three words: anti-selectionism,
saltationism, and holism (Sakura 1990b). Imanishi emphasized that there
is no competition among either organisms, or species. He believed that
nature is cooperative and has a harmonious character. Then, how and
why do living things evolve ? Imanishi's answer is really no answer.
He says that "the living things naturally change when the time for
change comes." Because is sounds so much like Zen Koan, I call it
"Zen evolution." "

On p.348 Sakura mentions than in 60s-70's neither Fisher's or Mayr's book
were translated into Japanese and only one Haldane's and one Dobzhansky's
book was translated. Sakura says:
"There was no Darwinism except population genetics".
Sakura[1] p.348 also explains Imanishiism's popularity by chauvinism
(~patriotism,nationalism).Popular Imanishiism was
"made in Japan".

France has also only recently accepted Darwinian theory on p.348:
"For example, [Darwin's] The Origin was translated nine times in total
since the 19th century. In contrast, neoDarwinists' work did not attain
such popularity. The synthetic theory of evolution was not introduced
in Japan until recently. Kishi(1986,1991) calls this phenomenon as
the "seclusion" of evolutionary biology in Japan.
Why was the biology or at least ecology community secluded ? The reason
is not clear, but the domination of Lysenkoism functioned negatively.
This case is not limited to Japan; France has also only recently
accepted Darwinian theory (Glick 1988)."

Sakura[1] stunnes us on p.353 saying that numerous essays mischaracterized
Darwinian theory:
"A physicist argued that the Hardy-Weinberg equation was too ideal
to be adapted to real populations of wild animals. As a consequence,
it could not explain any evolutionary phenomena!"

Surprising many intellectual people denied Darwinism (and also genes!) in
France at 60's- 70's according to Jacob[2]. Lysenkoism was popular
among left-wing intellectuals. (I've also seen one Finnish
left-wing-writer's book that was skeptical to Darwin and liked to favor
Lamarckism).


[1] Osamu Sakura: Similarities and Varieties: A Brief Sketch on the
Reception of Darwinism and Sociobiology in Japan, Biology and
Philosophy, Vol.13, no.3, July 1998, p.341-357.

[2] Francois Jacob: Of Flies, Mice and Men,(trans. Giselle Weiss),1998,
p.~28-32.(In Finland: Francois Jacob: Kärpänen, hiiri ja ihminen,
Terra Cognita, 1998).

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tapped on 16092003

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