Philisophical summary of Darwin's Theory of Evolution

According to Douglas J. Futuyma, biological evolution can be defined as "change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the genetic material from one generation to the next. Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from …

…Natural selection is so important because it provides a link between chance and emergence. Only when the result of chance, like an advantageous mutation, is stabilized, an entry into the emergent layer is possible. This stabilizing factor is natural selection itself. It is only then that an emergent entity can occur. It is the emergent theory that explains the sophistication of living structures, and so is our best hope for understanding the world around us.