Download or read book In Praise of Darwin written by J. David Pleins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George John Romanes, close friend and colleague of Darwin, remains a misunderstood figure in the history of evolutionary science. Although his scientific contributions have been valued, his religious journey has been either neglected or misjudged. Scholars typically only acknowledge some of the work on theism he did at the very end of his life and usually blame his wife for doctoring the record with her pieties. Romanes's extensive poetry writing, much of it religious, has never been explored and his Memorial Poem to Darwin has been completely overlooked. The recent discovery of the original typescript of the poem, lost for more than a century and reprinted in this book for the first time, allows us to enter the mind of a major Darwinian as we watch him struggle to reconcile faith and science on a positive basis.
Download or read book In Praise of Darwin written by J. David Pleins and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-06-19 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George John Romanes, close friend and colleague of Darwin, remains a misunderstood figure in the history of evolutionary science. Although his scientific contributions have been valued, his religious journey has been either neglected or misjudged. Typically scholars only acknowledge some of the work on theism he did at the very end of his life and usually blame his wife for doctoring the record with her pieties. His extensive poetry writing, much of it religious, has never been explored and his "Memorial Poem" to Darwin has been completely overlooked. The recent discovery of the original typescript of the poem, lost for more than a century and reprinted in this book for the first time, allows us to enter the mind of a major Darwinian as we watch him struggle to put together faith and science on a positive basis.
Download or read book Darwin s Mother written by Sarah Rose Nordgren and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Darwin's Mother, curious beasts are excavated in archeological digs, Charles Darwin's daughter describes the challenges of breeding pigeons, and a forest of trees shift and sigh in their sleep. With a keen sense of irony that rejects an anthropocentric worldview and an imagination both philosophical and playful, the poems in this collection are marked by a tireless curiosity about the intricate workings of life, consciousness, and humanity's place in the universe.
Download or read book In Praise of Science written by Sander Bais and published by Mit Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A virtuoso introduction to the field of science, the most democratic of human endeavors. In this engaging, lyrical book, physicist Sander Bais shows how science can liberate us from our cultural straitjacket of prejudice and intolerance. We're living in a time in which technology is taken for granted, yet belief in such standard scientific facts as evolution is actually decreasing. How is it possible for cell phones and Creationism to coexist? Science--fundamental, fact-based knowledge, not the latest technological gadget--can give us the global and local perspectives we need to make the world a better place. Bais argues that turning points in the history of science have been accompanied by similar milestones in social change, deeply affecting our view of nature, our perception of the human condition, and our understanding of the universe and our place in it. After a lively description of how curiosity trumps prejudice and pseudoscience in matters ranging from lightning rods to the transmission of HIV, Bais considers what drives science and scientists, a quest that culminates in that miraculous mixture of creativity and ingenuity found in the greatest scientists. He describes what he calls the "circle of science"--the microcosm and the macrocosm as mirror images--and demonstrates unity in a dazzling sequence of topics, including the hierarchy of structures, the forces of nature, cosmological evolution, and the challenge of complexity. Finally, Bais takes on the obstacles science encounters in a world dominated by short-term political and economic interests. Science, he says, needs to get its message out. Drawing on sources that range from Charles Darwin and Karl Popper to Herbert Marcuse and Richard Feynman, with In Praise of Science, Bais does just that.
Download or read book Darwin the Writer written by George Levine and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-06-30 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, arguably the most important book written in English in the nineteenth century, transformed the way we looked at the world. It is usually assumed that this is because the idea of evolution was so staggeringly powerful. Prize-winning author George Levine suggests that much of its influence was due, in fact, to its artistry; to the way it was written. Alive with metaphor, vivid descriptions, twists, hesitations, personal exclamations, and humour, the prose is imbued with the sorts of tensions, ambivalences, and feelings characteristic of great literature. Although it is certainly a work of "science," the Origin is equally a work of "literature," at home in the company of celebrated Victorian novels such as Middlemarch and Bleak House, books that give us a unique yet recognisable sense of what the world is really like, while not being literally 'true'. Darwin's enormous cultural success, Levine contends, depended as much on the construction of his argument and the nature of his language, as it did on the power of his ideas and his evidence. By challenging the dominant reading of his work, this impassioned and energetic book gives us a Darwin who is comic rather than tragic, ebullient rather than austere, and who takes delight in the wild and fluid entanglement of things.
Download or read book Darwin s On the Origin of Species written by Daniel Duzdevich and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2014-02-24 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential new edition of the 19th-century scientific masterpiece that translates Darwin’s Victorian prose into modern English: “Most useful” (Walter Brock, Columbia University). Charles Darwin’s most famous book On the Origin of Species is without question one of the most important books ever written. Yet many students have great difficulty understanding it. While even the grandest works of Victorian English can be a challeng for modern readers, Darwin’s dense scientific prose is especially difficult to navigate. For an era in which Darwin is more talked about than read, doctoral student Daniel Duzdevich offers a clear, modern English rendering of Darwin’s first edition. Neither an abridgement nor a summary, this version might best be described as a translation for contemporary English readers. A monument to reasoned insight, the Origin illustrates the value of extensive reflection, carefully gathered evidence, and sound scientific reasoning. By removing the linguistic barriers to understanding and appreciating the Origin, this edition brings 21st-century readers into closer contact with Darwin’s revolutionary ideas.
Download or read book Animals Charles Darwin Saw written by Sandra Markle and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2009-01-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A continuation of the Explorers series by award-winning author Sandra Markle, Animals Charles Darwin Saw features the many distinct creatures Darwin encountered during his worldwide voyage as a ship's naturalist. Readers will learn how the animals Darwin studied have had a dramatic effect on life today.
Download or read book Darwinism and the Divine in America written by Jon H. Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title provides a comprehensive analytical overview of public dialogue among 19th century American Protestant intellectuals who struggled with the theory of organic evolution. Arguments over the scientific merits of Darwin's theory gave way to discussions of its theological implications.
Download or read book In Praise of Animals written by Edward Searl and published by Red Wheel Weiser. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companionship, love, labor, even survival--animals offer all of these and more. In Praise of Animals honors the animals in our lives. In this unique collection, Edward Searl has gathered poems, prose, blessings, chants--tributes of all kinds, ancient and modern. He explores the varied topics of pets, wildlife, stewardship, ecology, evolution, and the spiritual connection among all creatures. In Praise of Animals is the ideal gift for animal lovers of all kinds--from those who work with animals to those who are welcoming a new pet or grieving the loss of one, to nature lovers in general. Perfect for animal-blessing ceremonies and other rituals that honor the animal kingdom. * Inspiring selections culled from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. This collection features poetry and prose from across the ages and around the world and includes passages from fiction, science, and children's literature. * From pets to wildlife, an anthology unlike any other. Offers selections on mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, work animals, and more. * Edward Searl is a seasoned minister of other successful collected anthologies on such topics as birth, marriage, and death. * Inspiring selections culled from a variety of sources, ancient and modern. This collection features poetry and prose from across the ages and around the world and includes passages from fiction, science, and children's literature. * From pets to wildlife, an anthology unlike any other. Offers selections on mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, work animals, and more. * Edward Searl is a seasoned minister of other successful collected anthologies on such topics as birth, marriage, and death.
Download or read book Darwin s Origin of Species written by Janet Browne and published by Atlantic Books Ltd. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No book has changed our understanding of ourselves more than Darwin's Origin of Species. It caused a sensation on its first day of publication in 1859 and went on to become an international bestseller. The idea that living things gradually evolve through natural selection profoundly shocked its Victorian readers, calling into question what had been for many the unshakeable belief that there was a Creator. In this book, Janet Browne, Charles Darwin's foremost biographer, shows why Darwin's Origin of Species can fairly claim to be the greatest science book ever published. She describes the genesis of Darwin's theories, explains how they were initially received and examines why they remain so contentious today. Her book is a marvellously readable account of the work that altered forever our knowledge of what it is to be human.
Download or read book Erasmus Darwin and the Romantic Poets written by D. King-Hele and published by Springer. This book was released on 1986-02-12 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) had the highest reputation among living English poets during much of the 1790s, through the great success of his long poem in rhyming couplets, The Botanic Garden, published complete in 1792. In this new book Desmond King-Hele shows in convincing detail how Darwin greatly influenced five major English Romantic poets, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats, and many other poets of the time, such as Crabbe and Campbell (but not Byron).
Download or read book Charles Darwin written by J. David Archibald and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2021-09-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh account of Charles Darwin’s rich personal and professional lives, well beyond On the Origin of Species. In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species. With this bedrock of biology books, Darwin carved a new origin-story for all life: evolution rather than creation. But this single book is not the whole story. In this new biography, J. David Archibald describes and analyzes Darwin’s prodigious body of work and complex relationships with colleagues, as well as his equally productive home life—he lived with his wife and seven surviving children in the bustling environs of Down House, south of London. There, among his family and friends, Darwin continued to experiment and write many more books on orchids, sex, emotions, and earthworms until his death in 1882, when he was honored with burial at Westminster Abbey. This is a fresh, up-to-date account of the life and work of a most remarkable man.
Download or read book Darwin written by Paul Johnson and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2013-09-24 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “riveting” (The Wall Street Journal) biography of one of the most influential and controversial scientists in Western history Acclaimed historian and biographer Paul Johnson turns his keen eye on Charles Darwin, the towering figure whose work continues to spur scientific debate. With his publication of On the Origin of Species, Darwin forever changed our concept of the world. While Johnson praises Darwin’s extraordinary skills as a natural scientist and his monumental achievements, he does not sidestep Darwin’s tragic failures as an anthropologist. Johnson argues that by applying his theory of natural selection to humans, Darwin provided a platform for the burgeoning eugenics movement. Lay readers and academics alike will enjoy this concise and unflinching exploration of Charles Darwin, a genius whose discoveries—even the flawed ones—add significant dimension to our understanding of his mind, the era in which he lived, and his everlasting impact on our world.
Download or read book Aesthetics after Darwin written by Winfried Menninghaus and published by Academic Studies PRess. This book was released on 2019-12-10 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin famously proposed that sexual competition and courtship is (or at least was) the driving force of “art” production not only in animals, but also in humans. The present book is the first to reveal that Darwin’s hypothesis, rather than amounting to a full-blown antidote to the humanist tradition, is actually strongly informed both by classical rhetoric and by English and German philosophical aesthetics, thereby Darwin’s theory far richer and more interesting for the understanding of poetry and song. The book also discusses how the three most discussed hypothetical functions of the human arts––competition for attention and (loving) acceptance, social cooperation, and self-enhancement––are not mutually exclusive, but can well be conceived of as different aspects of the same processes of producing and responding to the arts. Finally, reviewing the current state of archeological findings, the book advocates a new hypothesis on the multiple origins of the human arts, posing that they arose as new variants of human behavior, when three ancient and largely independent adaptions––sensory and sexual selection-driven biases regarding visual and auditory beauty, play behavior, and technology––joined forces with, and were transformed by, the human capacities for symbolic cognition and language.
Download or read book Imagining the Darwinian Revolution written by Ian Hesketh and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume considers the relationship between the development of evolution and its historical representations by focusing on the so-called Darwinian Revolution. The very idea of the Darwinian Revolution is a historical construct devised to help explain the changing scientific and cultural landscape that was ushered in by Charles Darwin’s singular contribution to natural science. And yet, since at least the 1980s, science historians have moved away from traditional “great man” narratives to focus on the collective role that previously neglected figures have played in formative debates of evolutionary theory. Darwin, they argue, was not the driving force behind the popularization of evolution in the nineteenth century. This volume moves the conversation forward by bringing Darwin back into the frame, recognizing that while he was not the only important evolutionist, his name and image came to signify evolution itself, both in the popular imagination as well as in the work and writings of other evolutionists. Together, contributors explore how the history of evolution has been interpreted, deployed, and exploited to fashion the science behind our changing understandings of evolution from the nineteenth century to the present.
Download or read book Charles Darwin Geologist written by Sandra Herbert and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Pleasure of imagination.... I a geologist have illdefined notion of land covered with ocean, former animals, slow force cracking surface &c truly poetical."--from Charles Darwin's Notebook M, 1838 The early nineteenth century was a golden age for the study of geology. New discoveries in the field were greeted with the same enthusiasm reserved today for advances in the biomedical sciences. In her long-awaited account of Charles Darwin's intellectual development, Sandra Herbert focuses on his geological training, research, and thought, asking both how geology influenced Darwin and how Darwin influenced the science. Elegantly written, extensively illustrated, and informed by the author's prodigious research in Darwin's papers and in the nineteenth-century history of earth sciences, Charles Darwin, Geologist provides a fresh perspective on the life and accomplishments of this exemplary thinker. As Herbert reveals, Darwin's great ambition as a young scientist--one he only partially realized--was to create a "simple" geology based on movements of the earth's crust. (Only one part of his scheme has survived in close to the form in which he imagined it: a theory explaining the structure and distribution of coral reefs.) Darwin collected geological specimens and took extensive notes on geology during all of his travels. His grand adventure as a geologist took place during the circumnavigation of the earth by H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836)--the same voyage that informed his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species. Upon his return to England it was his geological findings that first excited scientific and public opinion. Geologists, including Darwin's former teachers, proved a receptive audience, the British government sponsored publication of his research, and the general public welcomed his discoveries about the earth's crust. Because of ill health, Darwin's years as a geological traveler ended much too soon: his last major geological fieldwork took place in Wales when he was only thirty-three. However, the experience had been transformative: the methods and hypotheses of Victorian-era geology, Herbert suggests, profoundly shaped Darwin's mind and his scientific methods as he worked toward a full-blown understanding of evolution and natural selection.
Download or read book Darwin s Backyard How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory written by James T. Costa and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-09-05 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “If you’ve ever fantasized walking and conversing with the great scientist on the subjects that consumed him, and now wish to add the fullness of reality, read this book.” —Edward O. Wilson, author of Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life James T. Costa takes readers on a journey from Darwin’s childhood through his voyage on the HMS Beagle, where his ideas on evolution began, and on to Down House, his bustling home of forty years. Using his garden and greenhouse, the surrounding meadows and woodlands, and even the cellar and hallways of his home-turned-field-station, Darwin tested ideas of his landmark theory of evolution through an astonishing array of experiments without using specialized equipment. From those results, he plumbed the laws of nature and drew evidence for the revolutionary arguments of On the Origin of Species and other watershed works. This unique perspective introduces us to an enthusiastic correspondent, collaborator, and, especially, an incorrigible observer and experimenter. And it includes eighteen experiments for home, school, or garden. Finalist for the 2018 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prizes for Excellence in Science Books.
