As noted in my previous post, the new journal Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available online and free to download. My contribution to the first issue is “Evolution as fact, theory, and path“. Feel free to distribute this and any other papers from the journal as widely as you like, but please link to the journal website rather than re-posting papers.
There are now several available articles that discuss this important subject:
- Evolution as fact, theory, and path (T. Ryan Gregory)
- Evolution as fact and theory (Stephen Jay Gould)
- Evolution: fact and theory (Richard E. Lenski)
- Evolution is a fact and a theory (Laurence A. Moran)
- Hypotheses, facts, and the nature of science (Douglas J. Futuyma)
- The fact of evolution: implications for science education (James R. Hoffman and Bruce H. Weber)
- What is fact without theory? (Brian J. Switek)
Really nice article Dr. Gregory! You explained the difference between theory, fact, law, and hypothesis very clearly. Even after 8 years of studying Science at university I still felt that I learned something new and valuable from your article. I look forward to reading the rest of the journal!
Well done and congratulations on the article! (I’ve been looking forward to seeing this journal come out for some time). I will let you know when I have my “fact and theory” post done later today, although I must say that it probably won’t be as good as what you, Larry, and Stephen Jay Gould have already said!