Download or read book Before Darwin written by Keith Stewart Thomson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientists and thologians had long been debating the religious implicaitons of evolutionary theory when Darwin announced his theory of natural selection.
Download or read book The Philosophy of Zoology Before Darwin written by Alex McBirney and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-08-21 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jean Octave Edmond Perrier was a French zoologist who lived through the tumult of British Darwinism and Lyellism, and reminds us in this revealing account that French scientists had much to contribute to such perennial topics as evolution, catastrophism and creationism. While very much a product of the Third Republic, Perrier’s account also aimed to outline timeless issues and permanent advances in taxonomic and developmental biology since classical Greece and Rome. In this aim he succeeds with surprisingly modern perspectives for a book first published in 1884. Perrier was born May 9, 1844 at Tulle, the son of the principal of a school which now bears his name, Lycée Edmond Perrier. In 1864 he was accepted to the École Normale Supérieure, where he was strongly influenced by Louis Pasteur and Henri de Lacaze-Duthiers. After working for three years at a high school in Agen, he obtained a post of naturalist-aid at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (1868), advancing in that institution to Chair of Natural History of Molluscs, Worms and Corals (1876–1903) and then Director of the museum (1900–1919) and Chair of Comparative Anatomy (1903–1921). Previous directors of the museum included many of the scientists he discusses in this book: George Cuvier (1822–1823, 1826–1827, 1830–1831), Isidore Geoffrey St Hilaire (1860– 1861), and Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1891–1900). Perrier’s own research on echinoderms and earthworms took him on several expeditions in 1880-1885, mostly to Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, but also to the Caribbean.
Download or read book Evolution Before Darwin written by Bill Jenkins and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It was long believed that evolutionary theories received an almost universally cold reception in British natural history circles in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, a relatively recently serious doubt has been cast on this assumption. This book shows that Edinburgh in the late 1820s and early 1830s was witness to a ferment of radical new ideas on the natural world, including speculation on the origin and evolution of life, at just the time when Charles Darwin was a student in the city. Those who were students in Edinburgh at the time could have hardly avoided coming into contact with these new ideas. This book is the first major study of what was probably the most important centre or pre-Darwinian evolutionary thought in the British Isles. It sheds new light on the genesis and development of one of the most important scientific theories in the history of western thought.
Download or read book Human Evolution Beyond Biology and Culture written by Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete account of evolutionary thought in the social, environmental and policy sciences, creating bridges with biology.
Download or read book Anti Evolution written by Tom McIver and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-12-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Opposition to evolution is broad and deep-seated. Interestingly, many of the arguments flatly contradict one another. In this reference work, more than 1,850 books, pamphlets, and tracts are given lengthy, nonpolemical annotations summarizing content and identifying doctrines or theories. Notes on format, the background of the author, and the context of the publication are included.
Download or read book Cambridge Before Darwin written by Martha McMackin Garland and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1980-11-13 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major contribution to the intellectual history of Cambridge University takes as its main theme the rise of a specific educational ideal in early Victorian Cambridge.
Download or read book Before and After Darwin written by M.J.S. Hodge and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first of a pair of volumes by Jonathan Hodge, collecting all his most innovative, revisionist and influential papers on Charles Darwin and on the longer run of theories about origins and species from ancient times to the present. The focus in this volume is on the diversity of theories among such pre-Darwinian authors as Lamarck and Whewell, and on developments in the theory of natural selection since Darwin. Plato's Timaeus, the Biblical Genesis and any current textbook of evolutionary biology are all, it may well seem, on this same enduring topic: origins and species. However, even among classical authors, there were fundamental disagreements: the ontology and cosmogony of the Greek atomists were deeply opposed to Plato's; and, in the millennia since, the ontological and cosmogonical contexts for theories about origins and species have never settled into any unifying consensus. While the structure of Darwinian theory may be today broadly what it was in Darwin's own argumentation, controversy continues over the old issues about order, chance, necessity and purpose in the living world and the wider universe as a whole. The historical and philosophical papers collected in this volume, and in the companion volume devoted to Darwin's theorising, seek to clarify the major continuities and discontinuities in the long run of thinking about origins and species.
Download or read book In the Light of Evolution written by National Academy of Sciences and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.
Download or read book Vestiges and the Debate Before Darwin written by John M. Lynch and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was the most important pre-Darwinian work of evolutionary thought published in Victorian Britain. It caused huge controversy and was undoubtedly a major factor in preparing the way, both positively and negatively, for On the Origin of Species. To this point, essential documents surrounding the work - the reviews, the commentaries, the expositions, and more - have been incredibly difficult to obtain and truly available only to the most privileged scholar. Now with the publication of the Thoemmes Press collection on Vestiges, essential material will be readily available to all. The editor, John M. Lynch, and the Press are to be congratulated and thanked for making this possible.' - Michael Ruse Vestiges and the Debate Before Darwin centres on Robert Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and reprints all the key documents in the controversy that surrounded its publication. Vestiges was first published in 1844. Chambers, one of the most successful publishers in Britain, managed to keep his authorship a secret throughout the ten editions published in his lifetime. The work reached a huge popular audience and was widely read by the social and intellectual elite. Despite initially favourable reviews, its publication sent shockwaves through the world of British science. Chambers suggested that the whole of nature, including mankind, could be explained by the action of a single universal evolutionary law--a law that suggested that not only did change happen in the past, but that it would continue into the future. Such a statement enflamed both religious conservatives (Sedgwick referred to the 'inner deformity and foulness' of the work and its 'gross and filthy views of physiology') and scientists (T. H. Huxley said that the author was 'one of those who--indulge in science at second-hand and dispense totally with logic', and physicist Sir David Brewster warned that Vestiges 'stood a fair chance of poisoning the fountains of religion'). Understanding the upheaval that Vestiges caused in 'polite' British society is key to understanding Darwin's later argument and the reaction to his work by the same public. Reprinted here is the rare tenth edition of Vestiges (1853), written in response to this widespread criticism, plus Chambers's 'sequel', Explanations, written largely as a reply to Sedgwick's highly critical review of Vestiges. Periodical reviews and other important book-length refutations are also incorporated, including rare editions of works by Adam Sedgwick, William Whewell and Hugh Miller. With introductory essays by John M. Lynch of Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins, this important set will appeal to both historians of evolutionary thought and philosophers of science alike. -collection of rare primary sources on the evolution debate before Darwin -selects the best editions, added to which are extensive introductory essays -gathers numerous critical reviews tracing the debate over ten years -intriguing case study of Victorian scientific controversy
Download or read book Chance in Evolution written by Grant Ramsey and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-10-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illuminating volume explores the effects of chance on evolution, covering diverse perspectives from scientists, philosophers, and historians. The evolution of species, from single-celled organisms to multicellular animals and plants, is the result of a long and highly chancy history. But how profoundly has chance shaped life on earth? And what, precisely, do we mean by chance? Bringing together biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science, Chance in Evolution is the first book to untangle the far-reaching effects of chance, contingency, and randomness on the evolution of life. The book begins by placing chance in historical context, starting with the ancients and moving through Darwin to contemporary biology. It documents the shifts in our understanding of chance as Darwin’s theory of evolution developed into the modern synthesis, and how the acceptance of chance in Darwinian theory affected theological resistance to it. Other chapters discuss how chance relates to the concepts of genetic drift, mutation, and parallel evolution—as well as recent work in paleobiology and the experimental evolution of microbes. By engaging in collaboration across biology, history, philosophy, and theology, this book offers a comprehensive overview both of the history of chance in evolution and of our current understanding of the impact of chance on life.
Download or read book The Cuvier Geoffroy Debate written by Toby A. Appel and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1987 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the historical and scientific issues that made comparative anatomy central to 19th-century biology and fostered the development of Darwin's theory of evolution.
Download or read book Darwin s Dangerous Idea written by Daniel C. Dennett and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 596 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a book that is both groundbreaking and accessible, Daniel C. Dennett, whom Chet Raymo of The Boston Globe calls "one of the most provocative thinkers on the planet," focuses his unerringly logical mind on the theory of natural selection, showing how Darwin's great idea transforms and illuminates our traditional view of humanity's place in the universe. Dennett vividly describes the theory itself and then extends Darwin's vision with impeccable arguments to their often surprising conclusions, challenging the views of some of the most famous scientists of our day.
Download or read book From So Simple a Beginning written by Charles Darwin and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2010-08-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as "superior" by Nature, this landmark volume is available in a collectible, boxed edition. Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin—Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)—been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products.
Download or read book The Young Charles Darwin written by Keith Stewart Thomson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2009-01-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first to inquire into the range of influences and ideas, the mentors and rivals, and the formal and informal education that shaped Charles Darwin and prepared him for his remarkable career of scientific achievement. Keith Thomson concentrates on Darwin's early life as a schoolboy, a medical student at Edinburgh, a theology student at Cambridge, and a naturalist aboard the Beagle on its famous five-year voyage
Download or read book Darwin s Doubt written by Stephen C. Meyer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of rock. In Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer tells the story of the mystery surrounding this explosion of animal life—a mystery that has intensified, not only because the expected ancestors of these animals have not been found, but because scientists have learned more about what it takes to construct an animal. During the last half century, biologists have come to appreciate the central importance of biological information—stored in DNA and elsewhere in cells—to building animal forms. Expanding on the compelling case he presented in his last book, Signature in the Cell, Meyer argues that the origin of this information, as well as other mysterious features of the Cambrian event, are best explained by intelligent design, rather than purely undirected evolutionary processes.
Download or read book The Darwinian Revolution written by Michael Ruse and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1999-10-15 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prologue p. ix Acknowledgments p. xv 1 Background to the Problem p. 3 2 British Society and the Scientific Community p. 16 3 Beliefs: Geological, Philosophical, and Religious p. 36 4 The Mystery of Mysteries p. 75 5 Ancestors and Archetypes p. 94 6 On the Eve of the Origin p. 132 7 Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species p. 160 8 After the Origin: Science p. 202 9 After the Origin: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics p. 234 10 Overview and Analysis p. 268 Notes p. 275 Bibliography p. 285 Index p. 312.
Download or read book On Naval Timber and Arboriculture written by Patrick Matthew and published by . This book was released on 1831 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: