Monism pp 179-196 | Cite as

Monism in Britain: Biologists and the Rationalist Press Association

  • Peter J. Bowler
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Cultural and Intellectual History book series (CIH)

Abstract

When Todd Weir asked me to contribute to the symposium for which this chapter was prepared, I was intrigued, because the term “monism” has not featured very often in the work I have done on British science and its implications in the early twentieth century. I checked the index of my book Reconciling Science and Religion to bolster my impression that the term was not widely used, and was reassured when I found just four entries. Of course that does not mean that the ideas associated with the term were absent from British debates, only that the term “monism” itself does not seen to have caught on among British scientists. When one begins to dig a little more deeply, one does find British and American philosophers and scientists who endorsed monism, and who indeed regarded monism as a key feature of the emerging scientific attitude to the world. In this chapter I hope to show that a study of those scientists who may be associated with the philosophy (if not the term) may throw light on the complex history of how monism has been used and perceived both in Britain and elsewhere. Here, as in America and on the Continent, monism was developed in several different forms, and indeed there was some debate over what the philosophy actually implied for certain issues of concern to scientists and for their moral and ideological implications.

Keywords

Traditional Religion British Scientist Racial Hierarchy Human Fossil Race Question 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

  1. 1.
    For the link between the New Theology and monism see Keith W. Clements, Lovers of Discord: Twentieth-Century Theological Controversies in England (London: SPCK, 1988), 20, 42.Google Scholar
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    H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia (London: Chapman and Hall, 1905), 334–335. The reader is directed to the cartoon on page 329.Google Scholar
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    Coren, The Invisible Man, 65. See H. G. Wells, An Experiment in Autobiography (London: Victor Gollancz, 1934) and The Correspondence of H. G. Wells (London: Pickering and Chatto, 1998, 4 vols.).Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Todd H. Weir 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Peter J. Bowler

There are no affiliations available

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