It shows that one can be critical of Darwin and the founders of the science of evolution, without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Criticsim of evolutionary theory and its links to bourgoise society is not what the promoters of ID and critical discussion of evolutionary theory have in mind though, nor would they allow it in classroom.
Notice that through out the debate around ID there is a dearth of discussion of Stephen Jay Goulds work on puncutated evolution. A highly critical analysis of presumptions of uniformity, the very basis of which the creationists attempt to call into question evolution. The article below shows how Gould applied dialectics to question assumptions made by the founder of uniformism Charles Lyell (1797-1875) geologist. and his influence on T.H. Huxley as well as Darwin.
Gould deals with both catastrophism, and creationism and comes up with his own take on evolution. From a dialectical materialist perspective.
Natural History and the Nature of History
Richard York and Brett ClarkOver 500 million years ago, Pikaia, a two-inch-long worm-like creature, swam in the Cambrian seas. It was not particularly common, nor in anyway would it have appeared remarkable to a hypothetical naturalist surveying the fauna of the time. Pikaia is the first known chordate, the phylum to which Homo sapiens and all other vertebrates belong. As the late Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist, evolutionary theorist, and dialectical biologist, posited in one of his most renowned books, Wonderful Life (1989), an exceptional level of human arrogance is necessary to argue that Pikaia was superior to its many contemporaries who either went extinct or, through the vagaries of history, dwindled to obscurity. Yet, despite the absurdity of it, bourgeois thought is so deeply committed to portraying history as a march of progress leading inexorably to the present that many natural historians have long argued that evolution on earth unfolded in a predictable, progressive manner, with the emergence of humanity, or at least a conscious intelligent being, as its inevitable outcome. This view fits well with the perspective of the dominant classes of various historical ages, who typically believe the particular hierarchical social order that supports them is both natural and inevitable, the point toward which history had been striving. As Marxist scholars have long recognized, ruling-class ideology gets smuggled into the damnedest places, including interpretations of the natural world. This elite construction of nature, which often involves demarcating so-called inherent hierarchies, is often used to justify inequalities in the social world. It would be wise to call into question such depictions of the social and natural world and to seek an understanding of natural history free of this ideology.
Also see:
Dialectical Science-JBS Haldane
Dialectical Anthropology-AP Alexeev
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Stephen Jay Gould
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