Evolution, genesis and revelations, with readings from Empedocles to Wilson

Introduction : Evolution: what is it? ; Genesis: the history of evolutionism ; Revelations: evolution and philosophy

Prescientific concepts of the origin of species: Genesis : The prescientific mind ; The evolution of Genesis ; Selection : Genesis, chapters 1 and 2. Fundamentalists versus evolution: the origin of specious arguments

The origin of science: ancient Greece : The pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists ; Socrates ; Plato ; Aristotle ; Epicurus ; Lucretius ; Selections : Empedocles, six fragments ; Plato, from Timaeus ; Aristotle, from History of Animals ; Lucretius, from On the Nature of Things. The creation of science: instructions for the post-scientific age

The infanticide of science: Rome and the Middle Ages : Augustine and the Dark Ages ; Thomas Aquinas and the Late Middle Ages ; Selections : Augustine, from The City of God ; Thomas Aquinas, from Summa Theologica. Close encounters of the absurd kind

Born again: the revival of science in the Renaissance : Bacon ; Descartes ; Redi ; Selections : Bacon, from Novum Organum ; Descartes, from Discourse on Method ; Redi, from Experiments on the Generation of Insects. The uses and limitations of scientific methods

The genesis of evolutionism: the French phase : Maupertuis ; Diderot ; Lamarck ; Selections : Maupertuis, from The Earthly Venus ; Diderot, from Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature ; Lamarck, from Zoological Philosophy. The illusion of method in scientific creativity

The genesis of evolutionism: the British phase : Erasmus Darwin ; Wells ; Matthew ; Other pre-Darwinian evolutionists ; Selections : E. Darwin, from Zoonomia ; Wells, from Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind ; Matthew, from On Naval Timber and Aboriculture. Rhyme and reason

Darwin and Wallace: evolutionary convergence : Childhood ; Education ; Voyages ; The conception of evolution by natural selection ; Selection : Darwin and Wallace, “On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection”. Survival of the fittest: an axiom to grind

Darwinism is dead: long live Neo-Darwinism : Charles Darwin’s provisional hypothesis of pangenesis ; Weismann ; Mendel ; Haldane ; Selections : Darwin, from The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication ; Weismann, from Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems ; Mendel, from “Experiments on plant hybrids” ; Haldane, from The Causes of Evolution. The art of science

Modern times: Marxism, Lysenkoism, and sociobiology : Marxism ; Lysenko ; Wilson ; Selections : Lysenko, from The Science of Biology Today ; Wilson, from Sociobiology. Getting bad Marx in science