Darwin's Mentor

Darwin's Mentor
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 380
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0521591465
ISBN-13 : 9780521591461
Rating : 4/5 (65 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Mentor by : S. M. Walters

John Stevens Henslow is known for his formative influence on Charles Darwin, who described their meeting as the one circumstance 'which influenced my career more than any other'. As Professor of Botany at Cambridge University, Henslow was Darwin's teacher and eventual lifelong friend, but what of the man himself? In this biography, much previously unpublished material has been carefully sifted and selected to produce a rounded picture of a remarkable and unusually likeable academic. The time in 1829-31 when Darwin 'walked with Henslow' in and around Cambridge was followed directly by Darwin's voyage around the world. The gradually changing relationship between teacher and pupil over the course of time is revealed through their correspondence, illuminating a remarkable friendship which persisted, in spite of Darwin's eventual atheism and Henslow's never-failing liberal Christian belief, to the end of Henslow's life.

On Natural Selection

On Natural Selection
Author :
Publisher : Penguin
Total Pages : 87
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781101651162
ISBN-13 : 1101651164
Rating : 4/5 (62 Downloads)

Synopsis On Natural Selection by : Charles Darwin

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves—and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives—and destroyed them. Now, Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are. Penguin's Great Ideas series features twelve groundbreaking works by some of history's most prodigious thinkers, and each volume is beautifully packaged with a unique type-drive design that highlights the bookmaker's art. Offering great literature in great packages at great prices, this series is ideal for those readers who want to explore and savor the Great Ideas that have shaped the world.

The Devil's Delusion

The Devil's Delusion
Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
Total Pages : 260
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780786751471
ISBN-13 : 0786751479
Rating : 4/5 (71 Downloads)

Synopsis The Devil's Delusion by : David Berlinski

From a bestselling author, an “incendiary and uproarious” assault on the pretensions of scientific atheists (National Review) Militant atheism is on the rise. Prominent thinkers including Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have published best-selling books denigrating religious belief. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought. The Devil's Delusion is a brilliant, incisive, and funny book that explores the limits of science and the pretensions of those who insist it is the ultimate touchstone for understanding our world.

Darwin's Laboratory

Darwin's Laboratory
Author :
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages : 562
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0824816137
ISBN-13 : 9780824816131
Rating : 4/5 (37 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Laboratory by : Roy M. MacLeod

No scientific traveler was more influenced by the Pacific than Charles Darwin, and his legacy in the region remains unparalleled. Yet the extent of the Pacific's impact on the thought of Darwin and those who followed him has not been sufficiently grasped. In this volume of essays, sixteen scholars explore the many dimensions - biological, geological, anthropological, social, and political - of Darwinism in the Pacific. Fired by Darwinian ideas, nineteenth-century naturalists within and around the Pacific rim worked to further Darwin's programs in their own research: in Seattle, conchologist P. Brooks Randolph; in Honolulu, evolutionist John Thomas Gulick; in Adelaide, botanist Richard Schomburgk; and in Malaysia, biogeographer Alfred Russel Wallace. Lesser-known enthusiasts furnished Darwin with fresh material and replied to his endless inquiries, while young aspiring biologists from Cambridge tested Darwinian ideas directly in the "laboratory" of the Pacific. But the implications of Darwinism for the understanding of human nature and history turned it into a public theory as well as a scientific one. Anthropologists, geographers, missionaries, politicians, and social commentators - from Australia to Japan - all found ways to adapt Darwinism to their own agendas. Darwin's Laboratory demonstrates the variety and richness of Darwinian ideas in the Pacific and, in so doing, shows how the region functioned as a testing ground for the theory of evolution. Further, it illustrates how Darwinian ideas and their European contexts helped invent and define the particular conception we have of the Pacific. Both the general reader and the specialist will find controversy, illumination, and entertainment in this, the first book to probe the extent of Darwinism and Darwinian thinking in the Pacific.

Darwin's Evolving Identity

Darwin's Evolving Identity
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 377
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226523255
ISBN-13 : 022652325X
Rating : 4/5 (55 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Evolving Identity by : Alistair Sponsel

Why—against his mentor’s exhortations to publish—did Charles Darwin take twenty years to reveal his theory of evolution by natural selection? In Darwin’s Evolving Identity, Alistair Sponsel argues that Darwin adopted this cautious approach to atone for his provocative theorizing as a young author spurred by that mentor, the geologist Charles Lyell. While we might expect him to have been tormented by guilt about his private study of evolution, Darwin was most distressed by harsh reactions to his published work on coral reefs, volcanoes, and earthquakes, judging himself guilty of an authorial “sin of speculation.” It was the battle to defend himself against charges of overzealous theorizing as a geologist, rather than the prospect of broader public outcry over evolution, which made Darwin such a cautious author of Origin of Species. Drawing on his own ambitious research in Darwin’s manuscripts and at the Beagle’s remotest ports of call, Sponsel takes us from the ocean to the Origin and beyond. He provides a vivid new picture of Darwin’s career as a voyaging naturalist and metropolitan author, and in doing so makes a bold argument about how we should understand the history of scientific theories.

Darwin's Luck

Darwin's Luck
Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages : 212
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781441181695
ISBN-13 : 1441181695
Rating : 4/5 (95 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Luck by : Patrick H. Armstrong

One might make a case for saying that Darwin's life was dogged by bad luck. His mother died when he was seven; he was sent to a school at which he 'learnt little'; he left medical school after two years, unqualified. Two of his children died in infancy. On the other hand one could argue that he had a privileged and fortunate life - perhaps the more common view. Patrick H. Armstrong contends that although Darwin came to the right conclusions, he did not actually follow the right path in getting there. While his science was sometimes flawed, he had the distinct knack of good instinct. Armstrong presents a fresh view of Darwin's life and methods.

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Total Pages : 107
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780191647482
ISBN-13 : 0191647489
Rating : 4/5 (82 Downloads)

Synopsis Charles Darwin by : Adrian Desmond

Definitive, concise, and very interesting... From William Shakespeare to Winston Churchill, the Very Interesting People series provides authoritative bite-sized biographies of Britain's most fascinating historical figures - people whose influence and importance have stood the test of time. Each book in the series is based upon the biographical entry from the world-famous Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Darwin's Nemesis

Darwin's Nemesis
Author :
Publisher : IVP
Total Pages : 372
Release :
ISBN-10 : STANFORD:36105114573509
ISBN-13 :
Rating : 4/5 (09 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Nemesis by : William A. Dembski

With the publication of 'Darwin on Trial' in 1991, Cal Berkeley legal scholar Phillip Johnson became the leading figure in the intelligent design movement. Exposing and calling into question the philosophical foundations of Darwinism, Johnson led the charge against this largely unquestioned philosophy of materialistic reductionism and its purported basis in scientific research. This book reviews and celebrates the life and thought of Phillip Johnson and the movement for which he has served as chief architect. Editors William A. Dembski and Jed C. Macosko present eighteen essays by those who have known and worked with Phil for more than a decade. They provide personal and in-depth insight into the man, his convictions and his leadership of the intellectual movement that called into question the hegemony of Darwinian theory.

Darwin's Sacred Cause

Darwin's Sacred Cause
Author :
Publisher : HMH
Total Pages : 513
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780547527758
ISBN-13 : 0547527756
Rating : 4/5 (58 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin's Sacred Cause by : Adrian Desmond

An “arresting” and deeply personal portrait that “confront[s] the touchy subject of Darwin and race head on” (The New York Times Book Review). It’s difficult to overstate the profound risk Charles Darwin took in publishing his theory of evolution. How and why would a quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, produce one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Drawing on a wealth of manuscripts, family letters, diaries, and even ships’ logs, Adrian Desmond and James Moore have restored the moral missing link to the story of Charles Darwin’s historic achievement. Nineteenth-century apologists for slavery argued that blacks and whites had originated as separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin, however, believed that the races belonged to the same human family. Slavery was therefore a sin, and abolishing it became Darwin’s sacred cause. His theory of evolution gave a common ancestor not only to all races, but to all biological life. This “masterful” book restores the missing moral core of Darwin’s evolutionary universe, providing a completely new account of how he came to his shattering theories about human origins (Publishers Weekly, starred review). It will revolutionize your view of the great naturalist. “An illuminating new book.” —Smithsonian “Compelling . . . Desmond and Moore aptly describe Darwin’s interaction with some of the thorniest social and political issues of the day.” —Wired “This exciting book is sure to create a stir.” —Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging

Darwin Mythology

Darwin Mythology
Author :
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Total Pages : 327
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781009375726
ISBN-13 : 1009375725
Rating : 4/5 (26 Downloads)

Synopsis Darwin Mythology by : Kostas Kampourakis

Many historical figures have their lives and works shrouded in myth, both in life and long after their deaths. Charles Darwin (1809–82) is no exception to this phenomenon and his hero-worship has become an accepted narrative. This concise, accessible and engaging collection unpacks this narrative to rehumanize Darwin's story and establish what it meant to be a 'genius' in the Victorian context. Leading Darwin scholars have come together to argue that, far from being a lonely genius in an ivory tower, Darwin had fortune, diligence and – crucially – community behind him. The aims of this essential work are twofold. First, to set the historical record straight, debunking the most pervasive myths and correcting falsehoods. Second, to provide a deeper understanding of the nature of science itself, relevant to historians, scientists and the public alike.