Philosopher John Dupré is yet another of the long list of philosophers weighing in on evolution. He’s not as extreme as David Stove, allowing that there is such a thing as evolution - in fact, he does some service by noting that the phrase “the Theory of Evolution” is better replaced by “evolution theory” – but takes the same line as Stove on sociobiology/evolutionary psychology. The whole book comes across as being written by what Michael Shermer called a “cognitive creationist” – a person of basically leftist political tendencies who is full of praise for evolution when it is used as a counter to religion, but suddenly turns fundamentalist when evolutionary psychology comes up.


In that regard, Dupré devotes an entire chapter to “the decline of theism” as effected by Charles Darwin, stating that this is “the greatest significance” of Darwin’s work. Not our understanding of biology, but the destruction of any credibility for any religious belief. Then the remainder of the book takes on sociobiology/evolutionary psychology, which Dupré has the temerity to call “pseudoscience”. Dupré’s dismissal of evolutionary psychology ironically depends on the same type of rhetoric used by “creation scientists” – he sets up and knock over a series of straw men, deliberatly mischaracterizes evolutionary psychology’s arguments, and smugly implies that the field is in disrepute. My counter is simple – a book which argues that genetics has no effect on human behavior but never mentions twin studies cannot be taken seriously.
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I was expecting a disinterested exploration of the modern applications of evolutionary theory and it's social ramifications; what I found was a polemic against evolutionary psychology and a dismissal of Richard Dawkins's gene-centred model, set amongst a convoluted mass of fragmentary pieces. To say I was disappointed with Darwin's Legacy would be putting it mildly.

To be fair, Dupré does make some valid and necessary points with which I cannot but agree. For example, he takes a stand in claiming that science and religion are totally incompatible (and very much overlapping) 'magisteria', and that Darwin's formulation of his theory effectively removed Christianity's last remaining prop. He deserves credit for his forthrightness. His comments about the concept of race are also sensible. But his wholesale dismissal of evolutionary psychology is totally unwarranted: the subject undoubtedly has it's faults and there are of course examples of over-zealous application (although I found Dupré's portrayal of the subject essentially caricatural), but it's use as a theoretical model surely cannot be dismissed so easily.

The blurb on the book's back cover claims that it "clears a path through the confusion and controversy surrounding evolution". It doesn't. If you are ignorant of the theory of evolution and are looking for a clearer understanding of the subject, there are plenty of other much clearer introductions than this one. Conversely, if you are already familiar with the subject you are unlikely to find anything of great value here.