Abstract

From its very beginnings Darwinian theory of Evolution has had a strong appeal for philosophers; attempts have been made, among others, to base a philosophical understanding of the nature of scientific change on the Darwinian principle of natural selection. In its first section the present paper gives a sketch of the conceptions of Ernst Mach, Karl Popper and Stephen Toulmin, which converge on the claim that scientific change not only can be seen in analogy to organismic evolution, but has to be conceived of as evolutionary in a strict sense of the term. In the second section this claim is analyzed critically; it is asked, whether these conceptions are based on a correct understanding of Darwinian theory and whether they succesfully translate its basic assumptions to philosophy of science. In the final section some of the main philosophical implications of the evolutionary perspective on scientific change are discussed, especially its tendency to interpret this change as a natural process