Darwinian Heresies

by Edited by Abigail Lustig , Robert J. Richards , Michael Ruse

• ISBN13: 9780521172684
• ISBN10: 0521172683
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-12-09
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In Darwinian Heresies, which was originally published in 2004, prominent historians and philosophers of science trace the history of evolutionary thought, and challenge many of the assumptions that have built up over the years. Covering a wide range of issues starting in the eighteenth century, Darwinian Heresies brings us through the time of Charles Darwin and the Origin, and then through the twentieth century to the present. It is suggested that Darwin's true roots lie in Germany, not his native England, that Russian evolutionism is more significant than many are prepared to allow, and that the true influence on twentieth-century evolution biology was not Charles Darwin at all, but his often-despised contemporary, Herbert Spencer. The collection was intended to interest, to excite, to infuriate, and to stimulate further work.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Russian theoretical biology between heresy and orthodoxy: Georgii Shaposhinikov and his experiments on plant lice

The spectre of Darwinism: the popular image of Darwinism in early twentieth-century Britain

Natural theology

Ironic heresy: how young-earth creationists came to embrace rapid microevolution by means of natural selection

If this be heresy: Haeckel's conversion to Darwinism

Adaptive landscapes and dynamic equilibrium: the Spencerian contribution to twentieth-century, American, evolutionary biology

'The ninth moral sin': the Lamarckism of W. M. Wheeler

Contemporary Darwinism and religion

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