Abstract
The year 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of the English naturalist Charles Darwin, and also the 150th anniversary of his great book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. No one who takes science seriously would begrudge Darwin his fame, but there is a major question that is worth asking. Do we honor Darwin as an important figure in the history of science, but not necessarily as one whose thinking still speaks to us today? Or are there aspects of Darwinian thinking that are still important today? Is it possible, desirable indeed, to be a Darwinian in the sense found in the Origin?
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Browne J (1995) Charles Darwin: voyaging. Volume 1 of a biography. Knopf, New York
Burch R (2006) Charles Sanders Peirce. In: Zalta EN (ed). Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/
Carroll SB, Grenier JK, Weatherbee SD (2001) From DNA to diversity: molecular genetics and the evolution of animal design. Blackwell, Oxford
Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species. John Murray, London
Darwin C (1868) The variation of animals and plants under domestication. John Murray, London
Darwin C (1958) The autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–1882. In: Barlow N (ed). Collins, London
Darwin C (1985) The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Dawkins R (1976) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Dawkins R (1982) The extended phenotype: the gene as the unit of selection. W.H. Freeman, Oxford
Dawkins R (1996) Climbing mount improbable. Norton, New York
Dawkins R (2009) The greatest show on earth: The evidence for evolution. Free Press, New York
Eldredge N, Gould SJ (1972) Punctuated equilibria: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. In: Schopf TJM (ed) Models in paleobiology. Freeman, Cooper, San Francisco, pp 82–115
Farlow JO, Thompson CV, Rosner DE (1976) Plates of the dinosaur stegosaurus: Forced convection heat loss fins? Science 192:1123–1125
Gould SJ, Lewontin RC (1979) The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programmeB. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B: Biol Sci 205:581–598
Hamilton WD (1964) The genetical evolution of social behaviour. J Theor Biol 7:1–52
Hennig W (1966) Phylogenetic systematics. University of Illinois Press, Urbana
Herschel JFW (1827) Light. In: Smedley E et al (eds) Encylopaedia metropolitana. J. Griffin, London
Herschel JFW (1841) Review of Whewell’s history and philosophy. Q Rev 135:177–238
Johanson DC (2009) Lucy australopithecus afarensis. In: Ruse M, Travis J (eds) Evolution: the first four billion years. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 691–697
Knoll A (2003) Life on a young planet: the first three billion years of evolution on earth. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Kuhn T (1962) The structure of scientific revolutions. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Lipton P (1991) Inference to the best explanation. Routledge, London
Maynard Smith J (1982) Evolution and the theory of games. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Mayr E (1963) Animal species and evolution. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
McHenry HM (2009) Human evolution. In: Ruse M, Travis J (eds) Evolution: the first four billion years. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 256–280
Oster G, Wilson EO (1978) Caste and ecology in the social insects. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Owen R (1848) On the archetype and homologies of the vertebrate skeleton. Voorst, London
Ruse M (1979) The Darwinian revolution: science red in tooth and claw. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Ruse M (2008) Charles Darwin. Blackwell, Oxford
Ruse M (2009) William Whewell. In: Ruse M, Travis J (eds) Evolution: the first four billion years. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 913–919
Sepkoski D, Ruse M (eds) (2009) The paleobiological revolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Trivers RL (1971) The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Q Rev Biol 46:35–57
Whewell W (1837) The history of the inductive sciences. Parker, London
Whewell W (1840) The philosophy of the inductive sciences. Parker, London
Williams GC (1966) Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Wilson EO (1975) Sociobiology: the new synthesis. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Wilson EO (1980) Caste and division of labour in leaf cutter ants (hymenoptera formicidae, Atta) 1. The overall pattern in atta sexdens. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 7:143–156
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ruse, M. (2012). Darwinism Past and Present: Is It Past Its “Sell-by” Date?. In: Fasolo, A. (eds) The Theory of Evolution and Its Impact. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1974-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-1974-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Milano
Print ISBN: 978-88-470-1973-7
Online ISBN: 978-88-470-1974-4
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)