Author: Robert J. Richards File Type: pdf In tracing the history of Darwins accomplishment and the trajectory of evolutionary theory during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most scholars agree that Darwin introduced blind mechanism into biology, thus banishing moral values from the understanding of nature. According to the standard interpretation, the principle of survival of the fittest has rendered human behavior, including moral behavior, ultimately selfish. Few doubt that Darwinian theory, especially as construed by the masters German disciple, Ernst Haeckel, inspired Hitler and led to Nazi atrocities. In this collection of essays, Robert J. Richards argues that this orthodox view is wrongheaded. A close historical examination reveals that Darwin, in more traditional fashion, constructed nature with a moral spine and provided it with a goal man as a moral creature. The book takes up many other topicsincluding the character of Darwins chief principles of natural selection and divergence, his dispute with Alfred Russel Wallace over mans big brain, the role of language in human development, his relationship to Herbert Spencer, how much his views had in common with Haeckels, and the general problem of progress in evolution. Moreover, Richards takes a forceful stand on the timely issue of whether Darwin is to blame for Hitlers atrocities. Was Hitler a Darwinian? is intellectual history at its boldest. **Review Scholarly and wide-ranging. (Yvonne Sherratt, University of Bristol Times Higher Education Supplement) An illuminating look at what makes Darwinian theory so slippery, and so magnetic, even to those of us outside the sciences. (Michael Schulson Religion & Politics) These essays display the impressive range of Robert J. Richardss abilities as an intellectual historian and historian of science, as they explore the disparate sources of Darwinian thought in romanticism, theology, ethics, aesthetics, and linguistics. They dispel the notion that Darwin saw the world as purposeless, amoral, and red in tooth and claw, and they bring out the complexity and nuance of Darwins accounts of the origins of mind, morals, language, emotions, and humanity. It becomes clear, even before we get to the title essay, that Darwin was an unlikely fountainhead for Nazi ideology, and, for that matter, a poor figurehead for other -isms sometimes connected to him, from social Darwinism, to neo-Darwinism, to atheism and materialism. Richards also gives us an unusually sympathetic treatment of Ernst Haeckel, defends him against oft-repeated accusations of fraud, and reveals a strong affinity between his Darwinism and Darwins own. (Sander Gliboff, Indiana University) Richards considers Darwins theory of natural selection in relation to moral purpose and moves from there to Darwins principle of divergence and the crucial problem of transmutation of species. Subsequent chapters provide a thoughtful, fresh review of Haeckels alleged fraud with regard to vertebrate embryos and developmental stages. Herbert Spencers notion of social Darwinism and the cogent arguments from earlier chapters are brought to bear on the question that occupies the latter part of the book addressing whether or not Hitler was inspired by Darwinian doctrine to justify his view of race and the preservation of Aryan character. The author brings compelling logic and considerable insight to this question as well as knowledge about who did influence Hitlers thinking. . . . Recommended. (CHOICE) This collection of essays by Robert J. Richards, todays preeminent historian of evolutionary theory, shows the scholarship and intellectual daring we have come to expect from this author.Knowledgeable and sympathetic toward Charles Darwin, Richards also shows great empathy for Darwins contemporaries, from supporters like Ernst Haeckel to rivals like Richard Owen and Herbert Spencer. Witty and engaging on the surface, Richardss authoritative dismissal of the hypothesis that the roots of Nazi thinking are to be found in the fertile soil of the Origin of Species proves that the volume is held together by a deep moral seriousness and the conviction that the past really matters to the present. (Michael Ruse, author of The Darwinian Revolution Science Red in Tooth and Claw) About the Author Robert J. Richards is the Morris Fishbein Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Science and Medicine professor in the Departments of History, Philosophy, and Psychology and in the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science and director of the Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine, all at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, The Tragic Sense of Life, also published by the University of Chicago Press. He lives in Chicago.

Author: Anneke Kruit File Type: epub []

Author: Richard J. Schneider File Type: pdf Recent book-length studies of Thoreau have focused either on his place in the history of the natural sciences or have applied political principles to his works. None, however, has fully addressed what ecocritic Rebecca Solnit calls the Thoreau problem, the compartmentalizing of Thoreaus mind into either that of a hermit of nature or that of a champion of social reform. This book proposes an interdisciplinary solution to this problem through the connection between Thoreaus ecological study of nature and his intense interest in the emerging social sciences, especially the history of civilization and ethnology. The book first establishes Thoreaus human ecology, the relation between the natural sciences and the social sciences in his thinking, exploring how his reading in contemporary books about the history of humanity and racial science shaped his thinking and connecting these emerging anthropological texts to his late nature writings. It then discuss these connections in his major works, including Walden and his reform papers such as Civil Disobedience, the travel narrative A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. The concluding chapter focuses on Thoreaus attitude toward Manifest Destiny, arguing, against conventional views, that considering both his life and his writing, especially the essay Walking, we must conclude that he both accepted and endorsed Manifest Destiny as an inevitable result of cultural succession. **About the Author Richard J. Schneider is Professor Emeritus from Wartburg College. He has authored a monograph and many articles as well as edited three collections on Thoreau.

Author: P. J. Marshall File Type: pdf The aim of BengalThe British Bridgehead is to explain how, in the eighteenth century, Britain established her rule in eastern India, the first part of the sub-continent to be incorporated into the British Empire. Professor Marshall begins his analysis with the reign of Alivardi Khan, the last effective Mughal ruler of eastern India. He then explores the social, cultural, and economic ihanges that followed the imposition of foreign rule and seeks to assess the consequences for the peoples of the region emphasis is given throughout as much to continuities rooted deep in the history of Bengal, as to the more obvious effects of British domination. The volume closes with British rule firmly established, the arrival of Lord William Bentinck, and the failure of the great Agency Houses.ReviewThe entire Cambridge series, judging from the quality of these two examples, will prove essential reading for some time to come, for both specialists in Indian history and scholars in related fields. Both authors have clearly demonstrated their control over the state of scholarship in their respective areas. These two authors, and the series editors as well, are to be commended for a fine start to what should prove to be a major contribution to the study of Indian history. Michael H. Fisher, Public Affairs Spring 1989 Book DescriptionThe pattern of events that allowed Britain to establish her rule in eastern India, as well as their consequences, are traced to reveal the effects of the imposition of foreign rule upon the subcontinent.