It seems that when we talk about “evolution by natural selection” as opposed to “Lamarckian evolution,” evolution is the explanandum, and evolutionary theory attempts to provide the explanans.
“I encounter people who very definitely believe in evolution, who sneer at the folly of creationists. And yet they have no idea of what the theory of evolutionary biology permits and prohibits.”
One can legitimately sneer at the folly of creationists based on evidence for the explanandum of evolutionary biology (dinosaur bones, dog breeding, Neanderthals, and comparative anatomy) and the creationist response. This level of understanding is inferior to one that incorporates evolutionary theory, but is not simply attire.
“Or even worse, they’ll talk about something completely outside the domain of evolutionary biology, like an improved design for computer chips, or corporations splitting, or humans uploading themselves into computers, and they’ll call that “evolution”. If evolutionary biology could cover that, it could cover anything.”
The general sense of the word ‘evolution’ outside of biology is established in English, and some of the people who use it to describe phenomena like ‘the evolution of technology’ do understand evolutionary theory.
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/evolution general: a gradual process of development biology: change in the genetic composition of a population over time)
Eliezer,
It seems that when we talk about “evolution by natural selection” as opposed to “Lamarckian evolution,” evolution is the explanandum, and evolutionary theory attempts to provide the explanans.
“I encounter people who very definitely believe in evolution, who sneer at the folly of creationists. And yet they have no idea of what the theory of evolutionary biology permits and prohibits.” One can legitimately sneer at the folly of creationists based on evidence for the explanandum of evolutionary biology (dinosaur bones, dog breeding, Neanderthals, and comparative anatomy) and the creationist response. This level of understanding is inferior to one that incorporates evolutionary theory, but is not simply attire.
“Or even worse, they’ll talk about something completely outside the domain of evolutionary biology, like an improved design for computer chips, or corporations splitting, or humans uploading themselves into computers, and they’ll call that “evolution”. If evolutionary biology could cover that, it could cover anything.” The general sense of the word ‘evolution’ outside of biology is established in English, and some of the people who use it to describe phenomena like ‘the evolution of technology’ do understand evolutionary theory.