Darwinian Heresies

In Darwinian Heresies, some of today’s leading 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 is guaranteed to interest, to excite, to infuriate, and to stimulate further work.

• Investigates work of major, but little-studied biologists who gave shape to contemporary science • Studies evolutionary theory of nineteenth century that is analogous to biologists’ work of today • Compares Darwin and his conceptions of evolution with contemporaries

Introduction Abigail Lustig; 1. Russian theoretical biology between heresy and orthodoxy: Georgii Shaposhinikov and his experiments on plant lice Elena Aronova and Daniel Alexandrov; 2. The spectre of Darwinism: the popular image of Darwinism in early twentieth-century Britain Peter J. Bowler; 3. Natural theology Abigail Lustig; 4. Ironic heresy: how young-earth creationists came to embrace rapid microevolution by means of natural selection Ronald L. Numbers; 5. If this be heresy: Haeckel’s conversion to Darwinism Robert J. Richards; 6. Adaptive landscapes and dynamic equilibrium: the Spencerian contribution to twentieth-century, American, evolutionary biology Michael Ruse; 7. ‘The ninth moral sin’: the Lamarckism of W. M. Wheeler Charlotte Sleigh; 8. Contemporary Darwinism and religion Mikael Stenmark.