Book Review: Understanding Evolution

Understanding evolutionary change has become more complicated in recent years. After a number of theoretical expansions from Darwin's theory of evolution to neo-Darwinism and the Modern Synthesis, evolutionary theory is currently influenced by a fundamental debate about how to expand its theoretical framework even more (Pigliucci and Müller, 2010). This debate is driven by research results on the interplay between developmental and evolutionary processes in fields such as epigenetics, niche construction theory, and especially evo-devo, which hold that the dynamic regulatory processes during embryo-and morphogenesis as well as organisms' environmental responsiveness and activity carry explanatory weight in evolutionary theory. It has even been argued that we currently witness the return of not only developmental but Lamarckian ideas into evolutionary biology (Jablonka and Lamb, 2005). These new views have brought about a broad public debate on the question whether " Darwin was wrong " (e.g., Burkeman, 2010)—a debate directly exploited by creationists and advocates of Intelligent Design. As it thus seems, the time is ripe to investigate the obstacles for public understanding of evolution, as well as the conceptual problems and intuitions hindering people to accept the factual status of evolutionary theory. This is what Kostas Kampourakis' introduction to evolutionary biology, entitled Understanding Evolution, aims at. The author is well suited for this undertaking. He has been working on the teaching and public understanding of evolution and genetics, like on children's and students' intuitive explanations of homologies, adaptations, and organismic teleology (e.g., Kampourakis and Zogza, 2008; Kampourakis et al., 2012), for some time now. The book has six chapters, including, besides the introduction, chapters on " religious resistance to accepting evolution, " " conceptual obstacles to understanding evolution, " " Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species, " " common ancestry, " and " evolutionary change. " First and foremost, these chapters explore the psychological components and intuitions hindering acceptance of evolutionary theory in the public. As Kampourakis puts it: " Evolution is a rather counter-intuitive idea (from a psychological point of view), and it should not be taken for granted that it is easy for all, or even most, people to understand it " (xi). Additionally, Understanding Evolution investigates the conceptual boundaries underlying public resistance to evolution. To a large part this resistance is based on religious worldviews. In particular, Kampourakis discusses creationism and Intelligent Design. Although this analysis shows a bias toward Western (especially U.S.), Christian discourses, it offers …