tmt$t03$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org> 
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Jim McGinn  wrote:

> wilkins{at}wehi.edu.au (John Wilkins) wrote 
> 
> > > > I think that they tried to keep stochasticity apart 
> > > > from the concept of natural selection.
> > > 
> > > Darwin explicitly included it.
> 
> 
> 
> > natural selection can do nothing until favourable 
> > variations chance to occur ..."
> 
> 
> 
> > "I HAVE hitherto sometimes spoken as if the variations---so common and
> > multiform with organic beings under domestication, and in a lesser
> > degree with those under nature---were due to chance. This, of course, is
> > a wholly incorrect expression, but it serves to acknowledge plainly our
> > ignorance of the cause of each particular variation."
> 
> Very interesting.  Darwin recognized that "chance" was 
> the wrong word to employ.  He even recognizes that it, 
> "chance," has to do with lack of knowledge and, therefore, 
> was not causal.
> 
> > I think that Darwin did *not* hold that chance was 
> > a causal force - he *did*, however, think that 
> > variation was endemic to populations (little pun).
> 
> I wonder did he ever employ the word 'randomness.'  I 
> suspect he would have been smart enought to realize that 
> we can't (or shouldn't) employ 'randomness' 
> (stochasticity) interchangeably with 'chance.'
> 
> Jim

It's well known that Darwin was influenced by reports of de Quetelet's
work in social statistics (called, I believe from Spencer's own version,
"statics") on distributional variations in populations. But I gave the
URL to all of Darwin's works online (God *bless* the British Library) -
check it out and report back...
-- 
John Wilkins - wilkins.id.au
[I]magine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, "...interesting
hole I find myself in - fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? ...
must have been made to have me in it." Douglas Adams, Salmon of Doubt
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