Editing Darwin's Dangerous Idea (section)

===Part II: Darwinian Thinking in Biology===
[[Image:Origin of Species illustration cropped.png|thumb|left|Tree diagram in ''[[On the Origin of Species|Origin]]'']]
The first chapter of part II, "Darwinian Thinking in Biology", asserts that [[origin of life|life originated]] without any skyhooks, and the orderly world we know is the result of a blind and undirected shuffle through chaos.

The eighth chapter's message is conveyed by its title, "Biology is Engineering"; [[biology]] is the study of design, [[function (biology)|function]], construction and operation. However, there are some important differences between biology and [[engineering]]. Related to the engineering concept of optimization, the next chapter deals with [[adaptationism]], which Dennett endorses, calling [[Stephen Jay Gould|Gould]] and [[Richard Lewontin|Lewontin]]'s "refutation" of it<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gould |first=Stephen Jay |author-link=Stephen Jay Gould |author2=Richard Lewontin |author2-link=Richard Lewontin |year=1979 |title=The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme |journal=[[Proceedings of the Royal Society|Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B]] |volume=205 |issue=1161 |pages=581–598 |url=http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/perspectives/Gould_Lewontin_1979.shtml |doi=10.1098/rspb.1979.0086 |pmid=42062 |bibcode=1979RSPSB.205..581G |s2cid=2129408 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426061028/http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/perspectives/Gould_Lewontin_1979.shtml |archive-date=2009-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> an illusion. Dennett thinks adaptationism is, in fact, the best way of uncovering constraints<!-- pretty sure we should have an article on constraints too -->.

The tenth chapter, entitled "[[Bully for Brontosaurus]]", is an extended [[critique]] of [[Stephen Jay Gould]], who Dennett feels has created a distorted view of evolution with his [[popular science|popular]] writings; his "self-styled revolutions" against adaptationism, [[gradualism]] and other orthodox Darwinism all being false alarms. The final chapter of part II dismisses [[directed mutation]], the [[inheritance of acquired traits]] and [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin|Teilhard]]'s "[[Omega Point]]", and insists that other controversies and hypotheses  (like the [[unit of selection]] and [[Panspermia]]) have no dire consequences for orthodox Darwinism.