Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins

Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins
Author: Denis R. Alexander
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 461
Release: 2010-05-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0226608425

Over the course of human history, the sciences, and biology in particular, have often been manipulated to cause immense human suffering. For example, biology has been used to justify eugenic programs, forced sterilization, human experimentation, and death camps—all in an attempt to support notions of racial superiority. By investigating the past, the contributors to Biology and Ideology from Descartes to Dawkins hope to better prepare us to discern ideological abuse of science when it occurs in the future. Denis R. Alexander and Ronald L. Numbers bring together fourteen experts to examine the varied ways science has been used and abused for nonscientific purposes from the fifteenth century to the present day. Featuring an essay on eugenics from Edward J. Larson and an examination of the progress of evolution by Michael J. Ruse, Biology and Ideology examines uses both benign and sinister, ultimately reminding us that ideological extrapolation continues today. An accessible survey, this collection will enlighten historians of science, their students, practicing scientists, and anyone interested in the relationship between science and culture.

Science and Ideology

Science and Ideology
Author: Mark Walker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2013-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136466622

Does science work best in a democracy? Were 'Soviet' or 'Nazi' science fundamentally different from science in the USA? These questions have been passionately debated in the recent past. Particular developments in science took place under particular political regimes, but they may or may not have been directly determined by them. Science and Ideology brings together a number of comparative case studies to examine the relationship between science and the dominant ideology of a state. Cybernetics in the USA is compared to France and the Soviet Union. Postwar Allied science policy in occupied Germany is juxtaposed to that in Japan. The essays are narrowly focussed, yet cover a wide range of countries and ideologies. The collection provides a unique comparative history of scientific policies and practices in the 20th century.

The Dialectical Biologist

The Dialectical Biologist
Author: Richard Levins
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 1987-03-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0674255313

Scientists act within a social context and from a philosophical perspective that is inherently political. Whether they realize it or not, scientists always choose sides. The Dialectical Biologist explores this political nature of scientific inquiry, advancing its argument within the framework of Marxist dialectic. These essays stress the concepts of continual change and codetermination between organism and environment, part and whole, structure and process, science and politics. Throughout, this book questions our accepted definitions and biases, showing the self-reflective nature of scientific activity within society.

The Restless Clock

The Restless Clock
Author: Jessica Riskin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2016-03-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 022630292X

A core principle of modern science holds that a scientific explanation must not attribute will or agency to natural phenomena. "The Restless Clock" examines the origins and history of this, in particular as it applies to the science of living things. This is also the story of a tradition of radicals--dissenters who embraced the opposite view, that agency is an essential and ineradicable part of nature. Beginning with the church and courtly automata of early modern Europe, Jessica Riskin guides us through our thinking about the extent to which animals might be understood as mere machines. We encounter fantastic robots and cyborgs as well as a cast of scientific and philosophical luminaries, including Descartes and Leibnitz, Lamarck and Darwin, whose ideas gain new relevance in Riskin's hands. The book ends with a riveting discussion of how the dialectic continues in genetics, epigenetics, and evolutionary biology, where work continues to naturalize different forms of agency. "The Restless Clock "reveals the deeply buried roots of current debates in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and evolutionary biology.

Not in Our Genes

Not in Our Genes
Author: Richard Lewontin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2017
Genre: Behavior genetics
ISBN: 9781608467273

Three eminent scientists analyze the scientific, social, and political roots of biological determinism.

Reading Richard Dawkins

Reading Richard Dawkins
Author: Gary Keogh
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2014-02-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451479786

Theological reactions to the rise of the new atheist movement have largely been critically hostile or defensively deployed apologetics to shore up the faith against attack. Gary Keogh contends that focusing on scholarly material that is inherently agreeable to theology will not suffice in the context of modern academia. Theology needs to test its boundaries. Engaging Richard Dawkins illustrates how dialogue with antithetical viewpoints may offer new perspectives on classical theological problems. Keogh demonstrates how a dialogical paradigm may take shape—one which is up to the task of facing its critics in the context of modern academia.

Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin?

Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin?
Author: Griet Vandermassen
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2005-02-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 146164707X

Why should feminism and the biological sciences be at odds? And what might be gained from a reconciliation? In Who's Afraid of Charles Darwin? Vandermassen shows that, rather than continuing this enmity, feminism and the biological sciences—and in particular evolutionary psychology—have the need and the potential to become powerful allies. Properly understood, the Darwinian perspective proposed in this volume will become essential to tackling the major issues in feminism.

Maximus the Confessor and Evolutionary Biology

Maximus the Confessor and Evolutionary Biology
Author: Andrew P. Jackson
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2024-11-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1040166083

This book brings Maximus the Confessor’s logoi doctrine into dialogue with modern-day evolutionary biology. It explores the extent to which the logoi, as described by Maximus, exhibit features that are concordant with evolution before going on to consider more discordant aspects that cannot be ignored. The author addresses the curious resonance between the logoi and evolution in a systematic way through a close reading of primary textual material allied with a deep understanding of both the classical Darwinian and ‘extended’ evolutionary syntheses. The study joins with other Maximian interpreters in attesting to the incarnational and theophanic nature of the logoi, but seeks to extend this distinctively Eastern Christo-cosmology into the problematic territory of biological evolution, a territory historically dominated by Western scholarship. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion and science, as well as Patristics and the Eastern Orthodox theological traditions.

A Philosopher Looks at Human Beings

A Philosopher Looks at Human Beings
Author: Michael Ruse
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2021-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108820433

Considers why humans consider themselves superior to all other animals, and whether they are right to do so.

Genes, Determinism and God

Genes, Determinism and God
Author: Denis Alexander
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2017-07-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1107141141

How does genetic variation impact on behavioural differences and how does this relate to free will and personal identity? Denis Alexander examines these questions.