Darwin's Conjecture

Darwin's Conjecture
Author: Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2010-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226346900

A theoretical study dealing chiefly with matters of definition and clarification of terms and concepts involved in using Darwinian notions to model social phenomena.

Darwin's Impact: Social Evolution in America, 1880-1920

Darwin's Impact: Social Evolution in America, 1880-1920
Author: Frank X. Ryan
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2001-06-15
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781855069107

"These books make available, for the first time in striking juxtaposition, much of the rich and remarkable American response to the idea of social evolution. Professor Ryan has succeeded in producing a selection of the best work in the field. The volumes are balanced, intellectually deep and as relevant and fascinating today as they were a hundred years ago. Ryan deserves high praise for re-acquainting us with these lost treasures." --John Lachs Although Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection stunned the halls of biology, anthropology, and religion, its most profound repercussion in America was "Social Darwinism." Beginning in the 1880s, William Graham Sumner and his successors pushed "survival of the fittest" beyond biology to justify power, wealth, and even racial and gender superiority. Theodore Roosevelt and Stephen B. Luce championed military expansionism on Darwinian grounds, and eugenicist Charles B. Davenport urged selective breeding to propagate the strong and eradicate the physically and mentally infirm. Despite its widespread popularity, after the turn of the century Social Darwinism was challenged by a growing rank of philosophers, sociologists, and economists who argued that the movement thrived on bigotry and bad science. By the 1920s the countermovement led by Lester F. Ward, John Dewey, Charles H. Cooley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Thorstein Veblen had proven itself the "fitter" of the two. This three-volume set features more than sixty indispensable essays from 1880 to 1920, most of which have never been anthologized and are now scarce. Volume 1: Social Darwinism and its Critics offers William Graham Sumner's classic defense of Social Darwinism and its criticism from sociologists and philosophers such as Lester F. Ward, James Mark Baldwin, Charles H. Cooley, Jacob Gould Schurman, John Dewey, and Arthur M. Lewis. Volume 2: Race, Gender, and Supremacy rekindles the volatile clash over issues of race, gender, eugenics, and American supremacy, from authors including Nathaniel S. Shaler, Lydia Kingsmill Commander, Charles B. Davenport, Charles A. Ellwood, Theodore Roosevelt, Franz Boas, Edward A. Ross, and Charles H. Cooley. Volume 3: Evolution, Law, and Economics explores the impact of evolution on theories of natural law and economics, including pieces from William Graham Sumner, Thomas Nixon Carver, Andrew Carnegie, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis D. Brandeis, Simon Nelson Patten, and Thorstein Veblen. --more than 60 articles, tracing the impact of Darwinism on sociology, psychology, race, gender, eugenics, law and economics in the USA --all material reset and indexed, with a new introduction to each volume

In the Light of Evolution

In the Light of Evolution
Author: National Academy of Sciences
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2007
Genre: Science
ISBN:

The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.

The Collapse of Darwinism, Or, The Rise of a Realist Theory of Life

The Collapse of Darwinism, Or, The Rise of a Realist Theory of Life
Author: Graeme Donald Snooks
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 366
Release: 2003
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780739106136

In this provocative work, noted social and economic theorist Graeme D. Snooks exposes fatal flaws in the foundations of the Darwinian theory of evolution, which he deems an "artificial algorithm," as well as the neo-Darwinian synthesis adopted by many social scientists. Utilizing the historical method, Snooks develops a remarkable replacement theory of evolution, which he calls the "dynamic-strategy" theory. While the neo-Darwinian position places too great an emphasis on genetic change--giving rise to untenable but popular concepts such as the "selfish gene"--and fails to explain the fluctuating fortunes of life's most successful species (mankind), Snooks' framework starts by systematically observing the broad patterns of life and human society. The resultant realist theory of life posits life as a strategic pursuit (rather than a game of chance) in which organisms adopt dynamic strategies (only one of which is genetic change) to survive and prosper. Organisms' and species' progress is achieved through "strategic selection"--a concept that displaces the "divine selection" of creationists and the "natural selection" of Darwinists. This new theory reveals the organism as empowered, rather than as the plaything of gods, genes, or blind chance; and it provides a new basis for humanism.

The Book That Changed America

The Book That Changed America
Author: Randall Fuller
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0143130099

A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race “A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin’s just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Each of these figures seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin’s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things. Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Author: Charles Darwin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 964
Release: 2008-09-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1400820065

In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. This is especially true of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin's second most important work. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the first printing of the first edition (1871), not previously available in paperback. The work is divided into two parts. Part One marshals behavioral and morphological evidence to argue that humans evolved from other animals. Darwin shoes that human mental and emotional capacities, far from making human beings unique, are evidence of an animal origin and evolutionary development. Part Two is an extended discussion of the differences between the sexes of many species and how they arose as a result of selection. Here Darwin lays the foundation for much contemporary research by arguing that many characteristics of animals have evolved not in response to the selective pressures exerted by their physical and biological environment, but rather to confer an advantage in sexual competition. These two themes are drawn together in two final chapters on the role of sexual selection in humans. In their Introduction, Professors Bonner and May discuss the place of The Descent in its own time and relation to current work in biology and other disciplines.

An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change
Author: Richard R. Nelson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1985-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780674041431

This book contains the most sustained and serious attack on mainstream, neoclassical economics in more than forty years. Nelson and Winter focus their critique on the basic question of how firms and industries change overtime. They marshal significant objections to the fundamental neoclassical assumptions of profit maximization and market equilibrium, which they find ineffective in the analysis of technological innovation and the dynamics of competition among firms. To replace these assumptions, they borrow from biology the concept of natural selection to construct a precise and detailed evolutionary theory of business behavior. They grant that films are motivated by profit and engage in search for ways of improving profits, but they do not consider them to be profit maximizing. Likewise, they emphasize the tendency for the more profitable firms to drive the less profitable ones out of business, but they do not focus their analysis on hypothetical states of industry equilibrium. The results of their new paradigm and analytical framework are impressive. Not only have they been able to develop more coherent and powerful models of competitive firm dynamics under conditions of growth and technological change, but their approach is compatible with findings in psychology and other social sciences. Finally, their work has important implications for welfare economics and for government policy toward industry.

One Long Argument

One Long Argument
Author: Ernst Mayr
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1991
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674639065

The great evolutionist Mayr elucidates the subtleties of Darwin’s thought and that of his contemporaries and intellectual heirs—A. R. Wallace, T. H. Huxley, August Weisman, Asa Gray. Mayr has achieved a remarkable distillation of Darwin’s scientific thought and his legacy to twentieth-century biology.