| Defining Darwin: Essays on the History and Philosophy of Evolutionary Biology |  | Author: Michael Ruse
Publisher: Prometheus Books
This item is no longer available
Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 158,830
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 271
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 576.8
ASIN: B002MUBVEA
Publication Date: July 28, 2009
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Product Description
Michael Ruse is one of the foremost Charles Darwin scholars of our time. For forty years he has written extensively on Darwin, the scientific revolution that his work precipitated, and the nature and implications of evolutionary thinking for today. Now, in the year marking the two hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth and the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of his masterpiece, On the "Origin of Species", Ruse re-evaluates the legacy of Darwin in this collection of new and recent essays. Beginning with pre-Darwinian concepts of organic origins proposed by the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Ruse shows the challenges that Darwin's radically different idea faced. He then discusses natural selection as a powerful metaphor; Alfred Russel Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution; Herbert Spencer's contribution to evolutionary biology; the synthesis of Mendelian genetics and natural selection; the different views of Julian Huxley and George Gaylord Simpson on evolutionary ethics; and the influence of Darwin's ideas on literature. In the final section, Ruse brings the discussion up to date with a consideration of 'evolutionary development' (dubbed 'evo devo') as a new evolutionary paradigm and the effects of Darwin on religion, especially the debate surrounding Intelligent Design theory. Ruse offers a fresh perspective on topics old and new, challenging the reader to think again about the nature and consequences of what has been described as the biggest idea ever conceived.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Perfect for classroom debate March 15, 2010
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
DEFINING DARWIN: ESSAYS ON THE HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY comes from one of the foremost Darwin scholars of our time who for forty years has written extensively on Darwin and his works. This survey re-evaluates Darwin's impact and offers new and recent essays showing historic and current challenges to his theories and the metaphor of natural selection. Science libraries - particularly at the college level - will find its discussions perfect for classroom debate.
 Defining Darwin January 22, 2010
Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Sometimes I wish Charles Darwin could be resurrected long enough to come back and take on his disciples. There's an awful lot of squabbling within the evolutionary establishment, and to an outsider looking in, many of these disputes sound like angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin arguments. (Nature may not be "red in tooth and claw," but evolutionists certainly are). Michael Ruse is of the gradualist, strictly adaptationist school, and he does an impressive job of defending his approach, but he can also be terribly lofty, glib, and dismissive: was Kant's late philosophical work totally "irrelevant?" In Tolstoy, does the individual really count for "virtually nothing?" These types of statements, which pepper Ruse's book, are highly risible.
Ruse's principal whipping boy seems to be Stephen Jay Gould, and it's too bad Gould isn't around to provide his own retort. Personally, my sympathies are with Gould and his notions of contingency, exaptation, and sheer luck in the evolutionary scheme of things, but Ruse makes his points well. He's especially good at capturing figures like Spencer, Wallace, and Huxley. The important thing is: evolution works. So read this book, but read the others as well. Delve into Gould, Dawkins, and all the rest--and then draw your own (scientific) conclusions of how to go about //Defining Darwin//.
Reviewed by James Vasser
Over the Centuries January 21, 2010
Richard W. Nelson (California)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Defining Darwin is a dynamic chronicle of the history of evolution culminating with Darwin as the central character. Michael Ruse details how the players and movements over the centuries have contributed, in varying ways, to the development of the theory of evolution.
The most surprising finding is discovering how nearly all the major players sponsored untenable evolutionary ideas, according to Ruse--even Darwin. Ruse writes, "the truth is that there is virtually nothing today in evolutionary studies that corresponds to the facts of the Origin."
Starting with Immanuel Kant, Ruse places into perspective the influence the key players--Erasmus Darwin, Baptiste de Lamarck, Robert Chambers, Georges Cuvier, Alfred Russel Wallace, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, John F. W. Herschel, William Whewell, Charles Lyell, Asa Gray, William Paley, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Henry Huxley, Theodius Dobzhansky, Sewall Wright, Julian Huxley, Adam Sedgwick, John Henslow, Josiah Wedgwood, Robert Malthus, Ernst Mayr, Gregor Mendel, Ronald Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane, Edward D. Cope, E.G. Conklin, Stephen Jay Gould, Niles Eldredge, R. A. Fisher, George Gaylord Simpson, David Hume, Alfred Tennyson, George Bernard Shaw, Richard Dawkins, Ernst Haeckel, Rudolf Raff, Daniel Dennett, John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, E. B. Ford, G. Ledyard Stebbins, and Edward O. Wilson.
Ruse give his perspective on The Origin of Species, natural selection, social Darwinism, humanism, nature as a machine, evolution and ethics, evolutionary humanism, metaethics, Darwin versus Spencer, determinism, evo-devo, genetics, Darwin and religion, evolution as religion, synthetic theory, and Richard Dawkins.
Defining Darwin is an easy to read book that takes the reader through the centuries of evolutionary history from an evolutionist's perspective. Ruse is an expert on evolutionary history--and it shows. Defining Darwin is a fascinating must read.
One major criticism: Defining Darwin might have been better entitled Defining Darwinism.
Richard William Nelson
Darwin, Then and Now: The Most Amazing Story in the History of Science
Still evolving November 13, 2009
Hande Z (Singapore)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a collection of fine essays on Darwin, his life, work, and theory. The collectiion was put together almost seamlessly and read as a fine, readable book. Ruse had hitherto been writing books on Darwin and evolutionary biology and philosophy in a way that created the impression that he was holding out the possibility that in spite of the force of evolutionary science god might still have a place in this world. This book categorically disabuses such impressions. He remains, however, staunchly anti-Dawkins and the "new atheists" but has made it clear that the basis of his distaste for them is based on his belief that Dawkins was not speaking as a scientist when he attacks religion, and that Darwinism according to the Dawkins school is as much a religion as Christianity. Ruse may be forgiven for thinking that indomitable faith of any kind is bad in that it is unwarranted and unscientific. The real quarrel between the Christian and Dawkins is that one believes in god while the other does not. In that sense, Ruse himself had it right when he said that in the end it is all semantics. Ruse appears starkly in this book as clearly anti-creationist and 100% scientist. The reader will find the many biopics of relevant personalities in the history of evolutionary progress such as Alfred wallace and Julian Huxley fascinating - even if he might not agree with Ruse's opinions of them - and he can be said to be a harsh judge.
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