Universal Acid

Dennett's universal-acid metaphor expresses how Darwinian explanation challenges assumptions about design and intelligence across disciplines. It is an invitation to examine implications, not proof that every domain yields to one framework.

Universal acid is Dennett's metaphor for the far-reaching implications of Darwinian explanation: apparently designed complexity can arise through a process that does not itself foresee the result. Its force is a challenge to assumptions about where design requires an intelligent designer. It is not a finding that one theory already explains every aspect of every domain.

A disciplined extension identifies the actual mechanism before importing the vocabulary. What varies, what is retained or copied, and what changes the prevalence of variants? Cultural practices and organizational routines can involve deliberate redesign, institutions, and learning as well as selection. An analogy becomes useful when it generates a discriminating question, and becomes misleading when every survival or success is redescribed as evolution without further evidence.

When to use it

When a broad theory challenges a hidden explanatory assumption or a specific selection process may illuminate a new setting.

How it can help

When extending selection thinking, identify variation, retention, and differential propagation and compare the account with other mechanisms. Do not infer truth or optimality from survival.