Orthogenesis and the dictionary

[John Grehan]

Carmine Colacino wrote:

>That is NOT the meaning orthogenesis had in continental Europe.
>For some strange reason, nobody went to check out what it actually means,
>resting on the authority of Mayr, Gould (and others).
>It is not surprising then that you may find a definition in the American
>Heritage Dictionary which may define correctly the "contemporary usage" of
>the word, and still be wrong :-)

I am also inclined to think that is what happened with the dictionary definition
in question. One would hope that evolutionists usually take positions on
the meanings of evolutionary terms from the scientific literature rather than
the dictionary. The complexity of meaning and history of orthogenesis was
looked at in some detail in the 1985 paper "Orthogenesis and evolution" in
Systematic
Zoology 34: 174-192. I don't think this is an entirely obscure publication that
would justify evolutionists not being aware of other definitions of the term.

I am not aware of any more comprehensive treatments of orthogenesis since
the 1985 paper,
but if there are I would always be interested to know.

John Grehan