Make evolution less unethical?
Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rhode Island, Holly Dunsworth, recently wrote that it is “unethical” to teach evolution without also addressing its potential negative consequences, e.g. racism (“white supremacy”) and eugenics.
“Evolution educators—even if sticking to E. coli, fruit flies, or sticklebacks—must confront the ways that evolutionary science has implicitly undergirded and explicitly promoted or has naively inspired so many racist, sexist, and otherwise harmful beliefs and actions. We can no longer arm students with the ideas that have had harmful sociocultural consequences without addressing them explicitly because our failure to do so effectively is the primary reason these horrible consequences exist.”
Dunsworth is therefore proposing a public relations makeover of evolution’s “sordid past” and “sordid present”, calling for “a new narrative” that everyone can embrace. “It’s time for a human evolution that’s fit for all humankind.” And in a plea to her fellow evolutionists to support her quest to make evolution more accepted among scholars, students, and the community: “Without alternative perspectives, who can blame so many folks for out-right avoiding evolutionary thinking?”
However, Dunsworth’s essay stirred up a barrage of criticism from her fellow academics/evolutionists. For example, renowned anti-creationist Jerry Coyne, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, took issue among other things with Dunsworth’s presumption that a more inclusive version of evolutionary teaching would lessen community resistance. “If Dunsworth wants human evolution to catch on in America, she’d be better off loosening the grip of religion than instantiating her human-centered social justice course on evolution.”
- Dunsworth, H., It is unethical to teach evolution without confronting racism and sexism, evolution-institute.org, 19 November 2018, republished 10 days later blogs.plos.org.
- Coyne, J., Evolutionist coopts the field for social justice, whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com, 23 November 2018.
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