Nietzsche, Darwin and the problem of evolutionary progress

Abstract

This paper aims at clarifying a methodological difficulty which any interpreter of the Nietzsche-Darwin relationship must face to avoid committing a Neo-Darwinist anachronism. Nietzsche probably never read Darwin’s main works, On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man: scholars therefore focus on the secondary sources underlying Nietzsche’s assessment of Darwinism. In principle, this investigation allows a comparison between what Nietzsche understood by “Darwinism” and Darwin’s actual theory, to evidence potential misinterpretations. But because of the emergence of a synthetic theory of evolution during the 20th century, we tend nowadays to assimilate the “true Darwin” to the author of the first edition of On the Origin of Species, published in 1859. This is questionable absolutely speaking and couldn’t be the perspective of a normal reader during the 1880 decade. On the contrary, if we consider later editions of Darwin’s book, what appeared as a Nietzschean misconstruction can prove a legitimate criticism. This is the thesis I want to defend on the theme of evolutionary progress, a crucial target of Nietzsche’s anti-Darwinist discourse.

Key Words
Nietzsche; Darwin; Darwinism; Evolution; Progress; Complexity; Physiological division of labour; Value.