Christopher E Cosans

Owen's Ape and Darwin's Bulldog

Beyond Darwinism and Creationism

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

A few months after Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, Thomas Huxley challenged Richard Owen at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and set off a debate about apes, brains, and human evolution. Owen's Ape and Darwin's Bulldog explores that first debate about Darwin's theory of evolution. Huxley, a rising star in comparative anatomy and a protégé of Darwin, stood in contrast to Owen, the driving force behind the creation of the British Museum of Natural History. Owen's perspective was based on careful anatomical observations and on an interest in theories of evolution that had been proposed prior to Darwin's Origin. Huxley, soon to be known as Darwin's bulldog, built his case against Owen based in part on a different philosophy of how to practice science. In investigating the origins of this dispute, Christopher E. Cosans considers a tangled context of ideas stemming from the works of Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Thomas Malthus, Robert Chambers, Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Adrian Desmond, Nancy Cartwright, and Hilary Putnam. Conventional wisdom is that Huxley discredited Owen, yet this book makes clear that Owen's anatomical claims had much more support than most historians and philosophers of science assume. Owen believed in developmental theories of evolution, which were precursors to modern evo-devo theory. The Owen and Huxley debate is a perfect study for understanding relationships between science, ethics, and society. The story sheds light as well on current philosophical notions of scientific practice and how they influence our understanding of the history of science.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Indiana University Press
• Seitenzahl: 192
• Erscheinungstermin: 18. Februar 2009
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 235mm x 165mm x 12mm
• Gewicht: 327g
• ISBN-13: 9780253220516
• ISBN-10: 0253220513
• Artikelnr.: 25684085

Autorenporträt

Christopher E. Cosans teaches philosophy at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Inhaltsangabe

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: On the Origin of the Darwin Wars
Analytic Table of Contents
1. The Parable of the Hippopotamus Major
2. Philosophical Anatomy and the Human Soul
3. Evolution and the Discovery of the Gorilla
4. Does the Brain Distinguish Human from Beast?
5. Economics and Values on the Eve of the Origin
6. The Values and Metaphysics of Darwin's Origin
7. Why Owen Rejected Darwin's Analysis
8. Huxley's Hippocampus Counter-Attack
9. The Dissection of a Metaphysical Dispute
10. Ethics, Experience, and Truth
Appendix 1. Excerpt from Owen's 1851 Article on Ape and Human Brain Size
Appendix 2. The Concluding Pages of Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates (1868) on
Evolution, the Origins of Life, Metaphysics, and Theology
Bibliography
Index