According to Austrian philosopher and biologist Konrad Lorenz, there are two types of natural selection: the creative selection and intraspecific selection. The creative selection acts on the origin of species, creating the features of a species as a whole. The intraspecific selection acts on populations, selecting features by use, which produces adaptation to environmental conditions. The intraspecific selection governs the behavior of a species in response to a changing environment, but without creating a new species.

The two types of selection are different parts of the same process. The intraspecific selection occurs at a higher speed than the creative selection because of the plasticity of the brain. Human freedom consists in the ability to change the intraspecific selection, that is, the selection of behaviors. The creative selection does not determine neither can be determined by intraspecific selection. Thus, the action of each living being comes from a process not reducible to biological laws governing the origin of species.

The human cultural development modifies the ambient fastest than the phylogenetic development. But according to Lorenz, the ability to interfere in the ambient is not necessarily accompanied by a “perception of values”, a term which refers to the ability to make a choice that has an adaptive value. Without a perception of values ​​, it is not possible to know whether an adaptation will be beneficial or dangerous for survival. Then, our freedom does not mean sovereignty over nature. Without the perception of values, our technological development is blind to nature as a whole.

The creative selection continues to act in man, imperceptibly. For Lorenz, biological evolution is still important for humanity, since the values ​​we inherited from it are essential to our survival. These inherited values must be respected in cultural evolution, if man wants to have a balanced relation with nature, including human nature. It is important to note that human nature can never evolve under the control of intraspecific selection. Only the creative selection can actually create something new to human nature. Human interference in the process inevitably means degradation. This is because basic human values are a natural feature that antecedes the human culture itself, so they are not subject to human judgment, even if they are not eternal. They are just the result of a process that exists before mankind.

Lorenz criticizes the system of values ​​in which the efficiency of production determines social organization. When human inventions compete with the unique human characteristics, modifying authentically human behaviors, we lose sight of the natural values. Therefore, Lorenz rejects the idea that development should be oriented to the addition of new values, i.e., the upward progress of the human spirit. Lorenz calls the philosophy of progress of “false religion”.

The progress of a single population may cause the extinction of the species. Civilized human beings are a single population that has become global through a process of expansion. This population values ​​technological progress above the natural evolution. This mentality implies in the idea that the ordering of the world is, or should be, directed to the indefinite progress of humanity, justifying and naturalizing human domination over nature. The idea that technological development produces increasingly higher values ​​is linked to the philosophy of progress. According to this view, cultural evolution would be the true criterion in measuring the evolutionary stage of human beings.

But progress and evolution are very different things. Our advanced tools do not make us more evolved.

Next part: Evolution and innateness

Reference:

LORENZ, Konrad. A demolição do homem. Tradução: Horst Wertig. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Editora Brasiliense, 1986.