Page "Darwinism" Paragraph 7

In his 1995 book Darwinian Fairytales, Australian philosopher David Stove used the term " Darwinism " in a different sense than the above examples.

Describing himself as non-religious and as accepting the concept of natural selection as a well-established fact, Stove nonetheless attacked what he described as flawed concepts proposed by some " Ultra-Darwinists ".

Stove alleged that by using weak or false ad hoc reasoning, these Ultra-Darwinists used evolutionary concepts to offer explanations that were not valid ( e. g., Stove suggested that sociobilogical explanation of altruism as an evolutionary feature was presented in such as way that the argument was effectively immune to any criticism.

) Philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote a rejoinder to Stove, though a subsequent essay by Stove's protegee James Franklin's suggested that Blackburn's response actually " confirms Stove's central thesis that Darwinism can ' explain ' anything.