Evolution: Genesis and Revelations

With Readings from Empedocles to Wilson

Buch | Softcover

352 Seiten

1981
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-0-87395-487-7 (ISBN)

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In this comprehensive history of evolutionism, C. Leon Harris has combined primary source readings with clear, pertinent background information, to provide a solid basic understanding of the ways scientists have arrived at today's views of evolution.

Harris describes the major contributors to the theory of evolutionism, placing each in the context of the general cultural influences to which he was exposed. Each chapter also contains an explanation of the philosophical basis of the scientific approach of the period in question.

A lengthy bibliography provides direction for further reading on this important and timely subject.

C. Leon Harris is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at the State University of New York College, Plattsburgh.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Evolution: What Is It?

Genesis: The History of Evolutionism

Revelations: Evolution and Philosophy

1. Prescientific Concepts of the Origin of Species:Genesis

The Prescientific Mind

The Evolution of Genesis

Selection

Genesis, Chapters I and 2

Fundamentalists versus Evolution: The Origin of Specious

Arguments

2. The Origin of Science: Ancient Greece

The Pre-Socratic Philosopher-Scientists

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

Epicurus

Lucretius

Selections

Empedocles, six fragments

Plato, from Timaeus

Aristotle, from History of Animals

Lucretius, from On the Nature of Things

The Creation of Science: Instructions for the Post-Scientific Age

3. The Infanticide of Science: Rome and the Middle Ages

Augustine and the Dark Ages

Thomas Aquinas and the Late Middle Ages

Selections

Augustine, from The City of God

Thomas Aquinas, from Summa Theologica

Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind

4. Born Again: the Revival of Science in the Renaissance

Bacon

Descartes

Redi

Selections

Bacon, from Novum Organum

Descartes, from Discourse on Method

Redi, from Experiments on the Generation of Insects

The Uses and Limitations of Scientific Methods

5. The Genesis of Evolutionism: the French Phase

Maupertuis

Diderot

Lamarck

Selections

Maupertuis, from The Earthly Venus

Diderot, from Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature

Lamarck, from Zoological Philosophy

The Illusion of Method in Scientific Creativity

6. The Genesis of Evolutionism: The British Phase

Erasmus Darwin

Wells

Matthew

Other Pre-Darwinian Evolutionists

Selections

E. Darwin, from Zoonomia

Wells, from Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind

Matthew, from On Naval Timber and Aboriculture

Rhyme and Reason

7. Darwin and Wallace: Evolutionary Convergence

Childhood

Education

Voyages

The Conception of Evolution by Natural Selection

Selection

Darwin and Wallace, "On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection"

Survival of the Fittest: An Axiom to Grind

8. Darwinism is Dead: Long Live Neo-Darwinism

Charles Darwin's Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis

Weismann

Mendel

Haldane

Selections

Darwin, from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication

Weismann, from Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems

Mendel, from "Experiments on Plant Hybrids"

Haldane, from The Causes of Evolution

The Art of Science

9. Modern Times: Marxism, Lysenkoism, and Sociobiology

Marxism

Lysenko

Wilson

Selections

Lysenko, from The Science of Biology Today

Wilson, from Sociobiology

Getting Bad Marx in Science

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	30.6.1981
Zusatzinfo	Total Illustrations: 0
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	227 g
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
ISBN-10	0-87395-487-4 / 0873954874
ISBN-13	978-0-87395-487-7 / 9780873954877
Zustand	Neuware