Can Darwinism Be “Generalized” and of What Use Would This Be?

It has been suggested that, by generalizing Darwinian principles, a common foundation can bederived for all scientific disciplines dealing with evolutionary processes, especially forevolutionary economics. In this paper we show, however, that the principles of such a“Generalized Darwinism” are not those that in the development of evolutionary biology havebeen crucial for distinguishing Darwinian from non-Darwinian approaches and, hence, cannot beconsidered genuinely Darwinian. Moreover, we wonder how “Generalized Darwinism” can bemade fruitful for evolutionary economics given that its principles are but an abstract hull thatdoes not suffice to explain actual evolutionary processes in the economy. To that end specifichypotheses are required which neither follow from, nor are necessarily compatible with, thesuggested abstract principles. Accordingly, we find little evidence in the literature for the claimthat Generalized Darwinism can enhance the explanatory power of an evolutionary approach toeconomics.