THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY AND THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY: A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Abstract

The text is a plausible presentation and critical review of the main work of
Theodosius Dobzhansky: “Evolution of Humanity”. It tries to show and proves that
Dobzhansky tries and largely succeeds in offering a different, let’s say, dialectical interpretation
of the biological evolution of humanity, i.e., the stages and differences in
the evolution of the human species and race. Following in the footsteps of, but also in
contrast to, traditional Darwinism and some similar evolutionary theories, Dobzhansky
insists on the claim that evolution, primarily biological, is not over, but that it is still
going on, despite human, i.e., a cultural intervention, namely simultaneous and together/
conjunctive with it, which seeks to influence and change the directions of the existing
natural flows and processes. During the multi-millennium history, biology and culture
became interdependent and interfering, with which man (woman and man) with his
appearance asserted himself as the main and most responsible factor/agent of the fate
of the human race and the survival of the human community/human species, namely
survival of oneself, but also of the totality and entirety of the planetary biodiversity, as
a necessary prerequisite for one’s own survival and existence.
In his research on the evolution of humanity, Dobzhansky starts from the inspiring
views of some famous predecessors, such as Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, but we
can argue that Dobzhansky influenced many of his contemporaries, including Noam
Chomsky, especially when it comes to linguistic research on the genesis and emergence
of human language, and the influence of transformative-generative grammar on the
development of the human mind, i.e., on the development of the human brain.
At the same time, we can state that Dobzhansky’s research and insights correspond
and coincide with the research and ethical attitudes of some modern bioethicists,
philosophers of biology and culturologists, as well as with the attitudes of many
like-minded people and followers.