Biology Assignment Week Five

1.

It seems that both views about how a new species emerges (continuous and slow change, sudden mutation) have merits and can exist along side each other.  It is possible that environmental pressure can add up continuously and slowly on a species.  And at some tipping point some individuals within that species can mutate suddenly as a response to the accumulative pressure.     

2.

The question "which comes first, the chicken or the egg?" is really a question about causation.  It is very similar in structure as two other philosophical questions about causation—the first cause and the free will question.  

First cause

Usually we assume that an event happens because there was a prior event that has caused it to happen.  For instance if a puppy is born we assume that the puppy had a mother that has given it birth.  The mother must also have been a puppy herself before she became a mother, so on and so forth.  But if everything has a cause that is prior to it then does it go back infinitely in time or is there a first cause?  This is the question of first cause.  

Free will

The free will question is if we apply the idea of every event has a cause to human actions then our actions, whatever they are, must all have prior causes that trigger them.  And if that is the case then it seems that we do not have the free will to decide our own actions. 

All three questions point to the mystery of causation.  The difference is in the chicken and the egg question there are two elements which are chicken and the egg, in the first cause there are unlimited number of elements, and in the free will question there are just one element which is the person.

I believe there is a common answer to these questions and it is closely connected to the ideas of Buddhism and Taoism.  The very short answer is that the very idea of individual elements existing independently of each other is itself an illusion.  Further more to the extent that causation is a concept that is used by us to explain how each individual element relates to each other it is also an illusion.  Please read my presentation for further elaboration.