The Non-Darwinian Revolution

Reinterpreting a Historical Myth
Erscheinungsjahr 1992
ISBN: 978-0-8018-4367-9
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 415 g

Concise and clearly written, The Non-Darwinian Revolution sets forth a convincing argument for a reappraisal of Darwin's importance not only for the history of science but for the history of ideas as well. Bowler finds no fault in Darwin's theory, only with the mistaken notion of its revolutionary effect on nuneteenth-century thought. Examining the work of such figures as Owen, Spencer, Kelvin, Huxley, Haeckel, and Freud, Bowler discovers as near-universal tendency to accept evolutionism while rejecting Darwin's central premise: natural selection. Instead, leanding scientists and thinkers stubbornly clung to the Lamarckian theory of evolution as guided, purposeful development until they were forced by the twentieth century's "rediscovery" of Mendelian law to concede otherwise.

—British Journal of the History of Science

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bowler, Peter J.

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Evolutionsbiologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures
Preface
Chapter 1. The Myth of the Darwinan Revolution
Chapter 2. Darwin's Originality
Chapter 3. The Impact of the Origin
Chapter 4. Evolutionism Triumphant
Chapter 5. From Darwin to Modern Darwinism
Chapter 6. Human Evolution
Chapter 7. Social Darwinism
Chapter 8. A Cultural Revolution?
Chapter 9. Toward a New Historiography of Evolutionism
Refences
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Bowler, Peter J.
Peter J. Bowler is reader in the history of philosophy of sceince at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. His other books include The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the Decades around 1900, The Mendelian Revolution, and Theories of Human Evolution.