Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 5 of 5
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Darwinian Controversies: An Historiographical Recounting, David Depew
Darwinian Controversies: An Historiographical Recounting, David Depew
David J Depew
This essay reviews key controversies in the history of the Darwinian research tradition: the Wilberforce-Huxley debate in 1860, early twentieth-century debates about the heritability of acquired characteristics and the consistency of Mendelian genetics with natural selection; the 1925 Scopes trial about teaching evolution; tensions about race, culture, and eugenics at the 1959 centenary celebration Darwin’s Origin of Species; adaptationism and its critics in the Sociobiology debate of 1970s and, more recently, Evolutionary Psychology; and current disputes about Intelligent Design. These controversies, I argue, are etched into public memory because they occur at the emotionally charged boundaries between public-political, technical-scientific, and …
Inheriting Inherit The Wind: Debating The Play As A Teaching Tool, Edward Larson, David Depew, Ronald Isetti
Inheriting Inherit The Wind: Debating The Play As A Teaching Tool, Edward Larson, David Depew, Ronald Isetti
David J Depew
No abstract provided.
Darwinism, Design And Complex Systems Dynamics, David Depew, Bruce Weber
Darwinism, Design And Complex Systems Dynamics, David Depew, Bruce Weber
David J Depew
No abstract provided.
Genetic Biotechnology And Evolutionary Theory: Some Unsolicited Advice, David Depew
Genetic Biotechnology And Evolutionary Theory: Some Unsolicited Advice, David Depew
David J Depew
In his book The Biotech Century Jeremy Rifkin makes arguments about the dangers of market-driven genetic biotechnology in medical and agricultural contexts. Believing that Darwinism is too compromised by a competitive ethic to resist capitalist depredations of the “genetic commons,” and perhaps hoping to pick up anti-Darwinian allies, he turns for support to unorthodox non-Darwinian views of evolution. The Darwinian tradition, more closely examined, contains resources that might better serve his argument. The robust tradition associated with Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, and others provides an alternative, scientifically sound basis for challenging the rhetoric of genetic reductionism.
The Baldwin Effect: An Archeology, David Depew
The Baldwin Effect: An Archeology, David Depew
David J Depew
Abstract: “The Baldwin effect” stands for a wide variety of ways in which learn ing can be conceived as guiding adap tive evolution ary change. An analysis of the history of this notion reveals that it does not reliably refer either to a theory-neutral empirical phenomenon or to a single theoretical hypothesis. On the contrary, articulations of the general idea depend on distinctive, but in commensurable, theoretical backgrounds. In reconstructing the conceptual history of the Baldwin effect I hope to support contemporary explorations of idea by encouraging the articulation of new theoretical frameworks in which it might make sense. I …