Your correspondent is sitting below a large and ugly statue of Charles Darwin, overlooking the bay where the great scientist stepped ashore on Chatham, now San Cristobal, the most easterly of the Galápagos Islands. I am here to discuss the ways in which evolutionary theory can contribute to our understanding of social sciences.

此刻，我坐在一座巨大而丑陋的达尔文塑像脚下，眺望查塔姆岛（Chatham，如今称圣克里斯托瓦尔岛(San Cristobal)）外的海湾。查尔斯·达尔文(Charles Darwin)当年就是从那里登上了这座位于加拉帕戈斯群岛(Galápagos Islands)最东头的岛屿。我来到这里，是为了参加一个研讨会，讨论进化论能够以哪些方式帮助我们增进对各门社会科学的理解。

It seems barely possible that careful observation of finches, mockingbirds and tortoises could fundamentally change the way we think about the world. But in the 19th century it did. The Galápagos, 700 miles from the mainland of Ecuador, contain flora and fauna that differ from those of the rest of the world and differ, but less, from island to island. The genius of Darwin was to apprehend the process by which this pattern came about.

通过仔细观察雀类、嘲鸫和海龟来深刻地改变我们对世界的看法，这看上去几乎是不可能的。但在19世纪，这样的事情成为了现实。在距离厄瓜多尔大陆700英里的加拉帕戈斯群岛，有一些世界其他地方没有的动植物品种，群岛内每个岛屿之间的动植物品种也各不相同，但差异程度略校达尔文的天才之处在于，他发现了这种现象形成的原因。

Evolution is a process with three elements; variation, selection and replication. Changes happen, a few of these changes yield advantages, and such changes tend to be reproduced in subsequent generations. The extraordinary outcome – so far- reaching in its implications that Darwin hesitated to publish his ideas – is that designs of extraordinary complexity and efficiency can be achieved without the aid of a designer. Designs can emerge beyond the comprehension of any individual.

进化过程有三个元素：变异、选择和复制。变异总是会发生，少数一些转化为生存优势，而这种变异往往会在后代中得到复制。这个过程产生了一个不同寻常的结果（这个结果的影响如此深远，以至于达尔文曾对发表这个观点感到犹豫），即：高度复杂和有效的设计不需要设计师就能实现。一些设计可能超出任何个人的理解能力。

That insight, and the mechanics of variation, selection and replication, are relevant to many problems other than the origin of species. Modern business has developed as a result of the variation that comes from experiments in products and business methods, the selection by customers and capital markets of adaptations that add value (and the rejection of those that do not), and the replication by competitors of strategies that succeed.

这一深刻见解，以及变异、选择和复制的机制，也关乎物种起源以外的许多问题。现代商业的发展来源于三点：产品和商业模式实验中产生变异，客户和资本市场选择那些能够增加价值的变种（抛弃那些不能增加价值的变种），竞争者对成功策略进行复制。

But evolutionary thinking has made little progress in economics and encountered vigorous resistance in other social sciences. One source of difficulty is the character of those who favour such extension. Herbert Spencer, the 19th-century philosopher who coined the expression “survival of the fittest”, seems a ludicrous figure to modern eyes but was highly influential in his time. Spencer saw social evolution as a process of progressive advance through natural selection, an idea developed by eugenicists, who advocated selective breeding to improve the quality of the human stock.

但在经济学中引入进化论思想的努力成效甚微，在其他社会科学中引入该思想的努力也遇到了激烈的反抗。困难的来源之一在于，赞成推广进化论思想的人形象不佳。以现代的眼光来看，提出“适者生存”说法的19世纪哲学家赫伯特·斯宾塞(Herbert Spencer)是个可笑的人物，但他在当时具有非常大的影响力。斯宾塞认为，社会进化是一个通过自然选择渐进的过程。这一观点被主张通过选择性生育来改善人种质量的优生论者所发扬。

Eugenics was comprehensively discredited when the Nazis took the argument to murderous extremes. And even today, the idea human behaviour might have biological origins is tainted by these fascist and racist associations. When EO Wilson, the distinguished biologist, applied the insights he had gained from the study of communities of ants to human social organisation, his lectures were picketed and he was doused with water at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

纳粹以优生论的观点为理由谋杀无辜，该学说从此声名扫地。而即便是今天，认为人类行为可能有其生物学根源的观点，仍被认为与法西斯主义或种族主义有不光彩的联系。因为将研究蚁群得出的结论用于人类社会组织，著名生物学家威尔逊(EO Wilson)在做演讲时常常遭人抗议。在参加美国科学促进会(American Association for the Advancement of Science)一次会议时，他甚至被人泼了一身水。

But the demonstrators had little understanding of the points at issue. To describe evolution as “the survival of the fittest” is in a sense accurate but also profoundly misleading. The process of evolution is one of adaptation rather than improvement. The Galápagos tortoises survived for millions of years, not because tortoises are the master race, but because they are suited to a location characterised by mud, plentiful vegetation and a dearth of mammalian predators.

但抗议者其实对争论中的观点知之甚少。将进化概括为“适者生存”是准确的，但也造成了巨大的误解。进化的过程是适应的过程，而非改进的过程。加拉帕戈斯群岛上的海龟之所以生存了数百万年，不是因为海龟是最高级的物种，而是因为它们适应了那样一个由泥浆构成、植物丰富、食肉哺乳动物稀少的生存环境。

The match between capabilities and environment is the key to the success of the tortoise. It is also the key to successful business strategy, the effectiveness of institutions, and to personal development; and the evolutionary mechanisms of adaptation, selection and replication are as much at work in these areas of human activity as on the Galápagos. Evolution is a process of trial and error that receives regular feedback and tends to reproduce success. That is equally a description of how a market economy aligns productive capabilities with consumer needs.

海龟成功的关键在于生存能力与环境相匹配。这种匹配也是商业策略成功、机构高效运转以及个人发展的关键。在人类活动的这些领域，适应、选择和复制的进化机制所起的作用不亚于其在加拉帕戈斯群岛所起的作用。进化是一个试错的过程，会定期收到反馈，往往会复制过去的成功。我们也可以用同样的话，来描述市场经济将生产能力与消费者需求相匹配的过程。

Sitting at the feet of Darwin on a remote Pacific island with unique vegetation and wildlife is an invitation to humility. What worked best on one Galápagos island was not necessarily what worked best on another, and the reasons might not be obvious: it required 20 years of observation by Peter and Rosemary Grant, a century after Darwin, to understand properly what the

在这个偏远的太平洋上的小岛上，坐在达尔文塑像脚下，看着岛上独特的植物和野生动物，我不禁谦卑起来。在加拉帕戈斯群岛的各个岛屿上，最适合在某个岛屿生存的物种不一定适合在另一个岛屿生存，个中原因或许并不那么显而易见：在达尔文造访这里一个世纪以后，彼得和罗斯玛丽·格兰特夫妇(Peter and Rosemary Grant)又花费了20年时间在岛上观察，才得以确切地理解那位19世纪的哲人在观察岛上的雀类时得出的结论。有人认为自己理解复杂的生态系统（无论是生物的还是经济的），但通常他们的理解并不如自认为的那样深。“进化比人更聪明”，但理解这句话的真正含义需要智慧。

19th-century sage had seen when he observed the island finches. People who believe they understand complex ecosystems, biological or economic, generally know less than they think. “Evolution is smarter than you are”, but you need to be smart to understand the implications of that observation.