Friday, January 05, 2007

Plagiarism?

I'm working on another post about Daniel Dennett's book Darwin's Dangerous Idea. In that post I'm going to quote the following paragraph from page 21 (of the edition I own anyway):
Whenever Darwinism is the topic, the temperature rises, because more is at stake than just the empirical facts about how life on Earth evolved, or the correct logic of the theory that accounts for those facts. One of the precious things that is at stake is a vision of what it means to ask, and answer, the question "Why?" Darwin's new perspective turns several traditional assumptions upside down, undermining our standard ideas about what ought to count as satisfying answers to this ancient and inescapable question. Here science and philosophy get completely intertwined. Scientists sometimes deceive themselves into thinking that philosophical ideas are only, at best, decorations or parasitic commentaries on the hard, objective triumphs of science, and that they themselves are immune to the confusions that philosophers devote their lives to dissolving. But there is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.
Look at this link, specifically the second paragraph under the heading "What are the implications of evolution?" Look familiar? Am I missing something or is this just blatant plagiarism? If it is, what, if anything, should I do about it?

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