James Mark Baldwin with Alfred North Whitehead on Organic Selectivity: The "Novel" Factor in Evolution (Critical Essay‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Over the last century, a perennial controversy has concerned the notion of whether the psychologist and philosopher, James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934) is truly a discoverer of a legitimate, "new" factor at work in evolution, in which organisms are considered to be selective agents, having a meaningful, causal role in evolutionary processes. Baldwin's description of "A New Factor in Evolution" as the title of his seminal 1895 / 1896 paper suggests, implies that an explanatory principle, previously undeveloped, in relation to evolutionary processes had been arrived at, namely, one supplementary to Darwin's principle of Natural Selection. (1) Of course, Baldwin, in describing his theory as "new," was not so much interested in its "newness" as he was in its "trueness." (2) In his writings, Baldwin uses the notion of Organic Selection to explain how it is the case that by learning, by making behavioral accommodations, and by developing new habits of activity, namely, by their own mentality and selective activities, the individual organism can indirectly chart the course of the evolution of their species. (3) As expressed by Baldwin, the theory of Organic Selection "extend[s] the general principle of selection through fitness to the activities of the organism" (4) As such, Baldwin's theory may be termed a form of "organismic evolutionism," as contrasted with "materialist evolutionism." (5) Baldwin, along with British psychologist, Conway Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936), and paleontologist, Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935) arrived independently at the theory of Organic Selection in 1895 / 1896. The name of the theory, "Organic Selection" was proposed by Baldwin and adopted by Morgan and Osborn. (6) Much later, in 1953, George Gaylord Simpson termed a version of the theory, "the Baldwin effect." (7)