Charles Darwin S Incomplete Revolution

Author : Richard G. Delisle
Publisher : Springer
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2019-06-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030172039

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Charles Darwin's Incomplete Revolution by Richard G. Delisle Pdf

This book offers a thorough reanalysis of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which for many people represents the work that alone gave rise to evolutionism. Of course, scholars today know better than that. Yet, few resist the temptation of turning to the Origin in order to support it or reject it in light of their own work. Apparently, Darwin fills the mythical role of a founding figure that must either be invoked or repudiated. The book is an invitation to move beyond what is currently expected of Darwin's magnum opus. Once the rhetorical varnish of Darwin's discourses is removed, one discovers a work of remarkably indecisive conclusions. The book comprises two main theses: (1) The Origin of Species never remotely achieved the theoretical unity to which it is often credited. Rather, Darwin was overwhelmed by a host of phenomena that could not fit into his narrow conceptual framework. (2) In the Origin of Species, Darwin failed at completing the full conversion to evolutionism. Carrying many ill-designed intellectual tools of the 17th and 18th centuries, Darwin merely promoted a special brand of evolutionism, one that prevented him from taking the decisive steps toward an open and modern evolutionism. It makes an interesting read for biologists, historians and philosophers alike.

Author : Richard G. Delisle,James Tierney
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2022-02-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781350259584

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Rereading Darwin’s Origin of Species by Richard G. Delisle,James Tierney Pdf

Widely seen as evolution's founding figure, Charles Darwin is taken by many evolutionists to be the first to propose a truly modern theory of evolution. Darwin's greatness, however, has obscured the man and his work, at times even to the point of distortion. Accessibly written, this book presents a more nuanced picture and invites us to discover some neglected ambiguities and contradictions in Darwin's masterwork. Delisle and Tierney show Darwin to be a man who struggled to reconcile the received wisdom of an unchanging natural world with his new ideas about evolution. Arguing that Darwin was unable to break free entirely from his contemporaries' more traditional outlook, they show his theory to be a fascinating compromise between old and new. Rediscovering this other Darwin – and this other side of On the Origin of Species – helps shed new light on the immensity of the task that lay before 19th century scholars, as well as their ultimate achievements.

Author : Richard G. Delisle,James Tierney
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2022-02-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781350259591

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Rereading Darwin’s Origin of Species by Richard G. Delisle,James Tierney Pdf

Widely seen as evolution's founding figure, Charles Darwin is taken by many evolutionists to be the first to propose a truly modern theory of evolution. Darwin's greatness, however, has obscured the man and his work, at times even to the point of distortion. Accessibly written, this book presents a more nuanced picture and invites us to discover some neglected ambiguities and contradictions in Darwin's masterwork. Delisle and Tierney show Darwin to be a man who struggled to reconcile the received wisdom of an unchanging natural world with his new ideas about evolution. Arguing that Darwin was unable to break free entirely from his contemporaries' more traditional outlook, they show his theory to be a fascinating compromise between old and new. Rediscovering this other Darwin – and this other side of On the Origin of Species – helps shed new light on the immensity of the task that lay before 19th century scholars, as well as their ultimate achievements.

Author : Antonello La Vergata
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 614 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2023-10-05
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783031310232

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Images of the Economy of Nature, 1650-1930 by Antonello La Vergata Pdf

The book discusses ideas concerning the order and balance of nature (or "economy of nature") from the late 17th century to the early 20th century. The perspective taken is broad, longue durée and interdisciplinary, and reveals the interplay of scientific, philosophical, moral and social ideas. The story begins with natural theology (dating roughly to the onset of the so-called Newtonian Revolution) and ends with the First World War. The cut-off date has been chosen for the following reasons: the war changed the state of things, affecting man’s way of looking at, and relating to, nature both directly and indirectly; indeed, it put an end to most applications of Darwinism to society and history, including interpretations of war as a form of the struggle for existence. The author presents an overview of the different images of nature that were involved in these debates, especially in the late 19th century, when a large part of the scientific community paid lip service to ‘Darwinism’, while practically each expert felt free to interpret it in his own distinct way. The book also touches on the so-called ‘social Darwinism’, which was neither a real theory, nor a common body of ideas, and its various views of society and nature’s economy. Part of this book deals with the persistence of moralizing images of nature in the work of many authors. One of the main features of the book is its wealth of (detailed) quotations. In this way the author gives the reader the opportunity to see the original statements on which the author bases his discussion. The author privileges the analysis of different positions over a historiography offering a merely linear narrative based on general implications of ideas and theories. To revisit the concept of the so-called "Darwinian Revolution", we need to examine the various perspectives of scientists and others, their language and, so to speak, the lenses they used when reading "facts" and theories. The book ends with some general reflections on Darwin and Darwinisms (the plural is important) as a case study on the relationship between intellectual history, the history of science and contextual history. Written by a historian, this book really gives new, multidisciplinary perspectives on the "Darwinian Revolution."

Author : Rui Diogo
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 439 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2024-05-22
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031490552

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Darwin’s Racism, Sexism, and Idolization by Rui Diogo Pdf

Author : Richard G. Delisle
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 474 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2021-02-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030655365

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Natural Selection by Richard G. Delisle Pdf

This book contests the general view that natural selection constitutes the explanatory core of evolutionary biology. It invites the reader to consider an alternative view which favors a more complete and multidimensional interpretation. It is common to present the 1930-1960 period as characterized by the rise of the Modern Synthesis, an event structured around two main explanatory commitments: (1) Gradual evolution is explained by small genetic changes (variations) oriented by natural selection, a process leading to adaptation; (2) Evolutionary trends and speciational events are macroevolutionary phenomena that can be accounted for solely in terms of the extension of processes and mechanisms occurring at the previous microevolutionary level. On this view, natural selection holds a central explanatory role in evolutionary theory - one that presumably reaches back to Charles Darwin's Origin of Species - a view also accompanied by the belief that the field of evolutionary biology is organized around a profound divide: theories relying on strong selective factors and those appealing only to weak ones. If one reads the new analyses presented in this volume by biologists, historians and philosophers, this divide seems to be collapsing at a rapid pace, opening an era dedicated to the search for a new paradigm for the development of evolutionary biology. Contrary to popular belief, scholars' position on natural selection is not in itself a significant discriminatory factor between most evolutionists. In fact, the intellectual space is quite limited, if not non-existent, between, on the one hand, "Darwinists", who play down the central role of natural selection in evolutionary explanations, and, on the other hand, "non-Darwinists", who use it in a list of other evolutionary mechanisms. The "mechanism-centered" approach to evolutionary biology is too incomplete to fully make sense of its development. In this book the labels created under the traditional historiography - "Darwinian Revolution", "Eclipse of Darwinism", "Modern Synthesis", "Post-Synthetic Developments" - are thus re-evaluated. This book will not only appeal to researchers working in evolutionary biology, but also to historians and philosophers."

Author : Thomas E. Dickins
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2021-11-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030864224

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The Modern Synthesis by Thomas E. Dickins Pdf

This book is about evolutionary theory. It deals with aspects of its history to focus upon explanatory structures at work in the various forms of evolutionary theory - as such this is also a work of philosophy. Its focus lies on recent debates about the Modern Synthesis and what might be lacking in that synthesis. These claims have been most clearly made by those calling for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis. The author argues that the difference between these two positions is the consequence of two things. First, whether evolution is a considered as solely a population level phenomenon or also a theory of form. Second, the use of information concepts. In this book Darwinian evolution is positioned as a general theory of evolution, a theory that gave evolution a technical meaning as the statistical outcome of variation, competition, and inheritance. The Modern Synthesis (MS) within biology, has a particular focus, a particular architecture to its explanations that renders it a special theory of evolution. After providing a history of Darwinian theory and the MS, recent claims and exhortations for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) are examined that see the need for the inclusion of non-genetic modes of inheritance and also developmental processes. Much of this argument is based around claims that the MS adopts a particular view of information that has privileged the gene as an instructional unit in the emergence of form. The author analyses the uses of information and claims that neither side of the debate explicitly and formally deals with this concept. A more formal view of information is provided which challenges the EES claims about the role of genes in MS explanations of form whilst being consilient with their own interests in developmental biology. It is concluded that the MS implicitly assumed this formal view of information whilst using information terms in a colloquial manner. In the final chapter the idea that the MS is an informational theory that acts to corral more specific phenomenal accounts, is mooted. As such the book argues for a constrained pluralism within biology, where the MS describes those constraints.

Author : Rami Ginat
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781136309885

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Egypt's Incomplete Revolution by Rami Ginat Pdf

The importance of Lutfi al-Khuli and the intellectual circle associated with the Nasserist regime is examined here. Rami Ginat looks at al-Khuli's contribution to the short-lived yet formidable success of Arab socialism.

Author : Grant Allen
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2018-01-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 0483188190

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Charles Darwin (Classic Reprint) by Grant Allen Pdf

Excerpt from Charles Darwin IN this little volume I have endeavoured to present the life and work of Charles Darwin viewed as a moment in a great revolution, in due relation both to those who went before and to those who come after him. Recog nising, as has been well said, that the wave makes the crest, not the crest the wave, I have tried to let my hero fall naturally into his proper place in a vast onward movement of the human intellect, of which he was himself at once a. Splendid product and a moving cause of the first importance. I have attempted to show him both as receiving the torch from Lamarck and Malthus, and as passing it on with renewed brilliancy to the wide school of evolutionary thinkers whom his work was instrumental in arousing to fresh and vigorous activity along a thousand separate and varied lines of thought and action. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Author : Salvatore J. Agosta,Daniel R. Brooks
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2020-08-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030520861

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The Major Metaphors of Evolution by Salvatore J. Agosta,Daniel R. Brooks Pdf

This book presents a unified evolutionary framework based on three sets of metaphors that will help to consolidate discussions on evolutionary transitions. Evolution is the unifying principle of life, making identifying ways to apply evolutionary principles to tackle existence-threatening crises such as climate change crucial. A more cohesive evolutionary framework will further the discussions in this regard and also accelerate the process itself. This book lays out a framework based on three dualistic classes of metaphors – time, space, and conflict resolution. Evolutionary transitions theory shows how metaphors can help us understand selective diversification, as Darwin described with his “tree of life”. Moreover, the recently proposed Stockholm paradigm demonstrates how metaphors can help shed light on the emergence of complex ecosystems that Darwin highlighted with his “tangled bank” metaphor. Taken together, these ideas offer proactive measures for coping with existential crises for humanity, such as climate change. The book will appeal to biologists, philosophers and historians alike.

Author : Lesley Newson,Peter Richerson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780190883201

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A Story of Us by Lesley Newson,Peter Richerson Pdf

Changes in the environment drive evolution, and evidence suggests that our ancestors evolved to use cultural adaptations to survive environmental fluctuations of great severity. In A Story of Us, Lesley Newson and Peter Richerson explain the evidence and ideas that provide an account of how they coped, using short descriptive stories to illustrate life at different stages of our evolutionary history.

Author : Gísli Pálsson
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2024-02-06
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9780691230986

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The Last of Its Kind by Gísli Pálsson Pdf

How an iconic bird’s final days exposed the reality of human-caused extinction The great auk is one of the most tragic and documented examples of extinction. A flightless bird that bred primarily on the remote islands of the North Atlantic, the last of its kind were killed in Iceland in 1844. Gísli Pálsson draws on firsthand accounts from the Icelanders who hunted the last great auks to bring to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species. Pálsson vividly recounts how British ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton set out for Iceland to collect specimens only to discover that the great auks were already gone. At the time, the Victorian world viewed extinction as an impossibility or trivialized it as a natural phenomenon. Pálsson chronicles how Wolley and Newton documented the fate of the last birds through interviews with the men who killed them, and how the naturalists’ Icelandic journey opened their eyes to the disappearance of species as a subject of scientific concern—and as something that could be caused by humans. Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson’s own North Atlantic travels, The Last of Its Kind reveals how the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.

Author : Nancy Stepan
Publisher : Springer
Page : 230 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1982-06-18
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781349054527

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Idea of Race in Science by Nancy Stepan Pdf

Author : Fazale Rana,Hugh Norman Ross
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 24 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Evolution
ISBN : 1886653488

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What Darwin Didn't Know by Fazale Rana,Hugh Norman Ross Pdf

If Darwin knew then what we know now, would he have advanced his theory of biological evolution? Darwin built his theory on the data available at that time. But understanding of life's structure and history in the mid-19th century was vastly incomplete. Since then a scientific revolution has taken place. It's not surprising that Darwin's theory no longer represents a viable explanation of nature's record. --from publisher description

Author : William Denton
Publisher : Kessinger Publishing
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2008-10-01
Category : Law
ISBN : 1437070086

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Is Darwin Right? Or the Origin of Man (1881) by William Denton Pdf

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.