In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day. ContentsPrefacePart I: Starting in the MiddleCHAPTER ONETell Me Why1. Is Nothing Sacred?2. What, Where, When, Why -- and How?3. Locke's "Proof" of the Primacy of Mind4. Hume's Close EncounterCHAPTER TWOAn Idea Is Born1. What Is So Special About Species?2. Natural Selection -- an Awful Stretcher3. Did Darwin Explain the Origin of Species?4. Natural Selection as an Algorithmic Process5. Processes as AlgorithmsCHAPTER THREEUniversal Acid1. Early Reactions2. Darwin's Assault on the Cosmic Pyramid3. The Principle of the Accumulation of Design4. The Tools for R and D: Skyhooks or Cranes?5. Who's Afraid of Reductionism?CHAPTER FOURThe Tree of Life1. How Should We Visualize the Tree of Life?2. Color-coding a Species on the Tree3. Retrospective Coronations: Mitochondrial Eve and Invisible Beginnings4. Patterns, Oversimplification, and ExplanationCHAPTER FIVEThe Possible and the Actual1. Grades of Possibility?2. The Library of Mendel3. The Complex Relation Between Genome and Organism4. Possibility NaturalizedCHAPTER SIXThreads of Actuality in Design Space1. Drifting and Lifting Through Design Space2. Forced Moves in the Game of Design3. The Unity of Design SpacePart II: Darwinian Thinking in BiologyCHAPTER SEVENPriming Darwin' s Pump1. Back Beyond Darwin's Frontier2. Molecular Evolution3. The Laws of the Game of Life4. Eternal Recurrence -- Life Without Foundations?CHAPTER EIGHTBiology Is Engineering1. The Sciences of the Artificial2. Darwin Is Dead -- Long Live Darwin!3. Function and Specification4. Original Sin and the Birth of Meaning5. The Computer That Learned to Play Checkers6. Artifact Hermeneutics, or Reverse Engineering7. Stuart Kauffman as Meta-EngineerCHAPTER NINESearching for Quality1. The Power of Adaptationist Thinking2. The Leibnizian Paradigm3. Playing with ConstraintsCHAPTER TENBully for Brontosaurus1. The Boy Who Cried Wolf?2. The Spandrel's Thumb3. Punctuated Equilibrium: A Hopeful Monster4. Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Burgess Shale Double-Play MysteryCHAPTER ELEVENControversies Contained1. A Clutch of Harmless Heresies2. Three Losers: Teilhard, Lamarck, and Directed Mutation3. Cui Bono?Part III: Mind, Meaning, Mathematics, and MoralityCHAPTER TWELVEThe Cranes of Culture1. The Monkey's Uncle Meets the Meme2. Invasion of the Body-Snatchers3. Could There Be a Science of Memetics?4. The Philosophical Importance of MemesCHAPTER THIRTEENLosing Out Minds to Darwin1. The Role of Language in Intelligence2. Chomsky Contra Darwin: Four Episodes3. Nice TriesCHAPTER FOURTEENThe Evolution of Meanings1. The Quest for Real Meaning2. Two Black Boxes3. Blocking the Exits4. Safe Passage to the FutureCHAPTER FIFTEENThe Emperor's New Mind, and Other Fables1. The Sword in the Stone2. The Library of Toshiba3. The Phantom Quantum-Gravity Computer: Lessons from LaplandCHAPTER SIXTEENOn the Origin of Morality1. E Pluribus Unum?2. Friedrich Nietzsche's Just So Stories3. Some Varieties of Greedy Ethical Reductionism4. Sociobiology: Good and Bad, Good and EvilCHAPTER SEVENTEENRedesigning Morality1. Can Ethics Be Naturalized?2. Judging the Competition3. The Moral First Aid ManualCHAPTER EIGHTEENThe Future of an Idea1. In Praise of Biodiversity2. Universal Acid: Handle with CareAppendixBibliographyIndex