Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction?
With the recent Sokal hoaxthe publication of a prominent physicist's pseudo-article in a leading journal of cultural studiesthe status of science moved sharply from debate to dispute. Is science objective, a disinterested reflection of reality, as Karl Popper and his followers believed? Or is it subjective, a social construction, as Thomas Kuhn and his students maintained? Into the fray comes Mystery of Mysteries, an enlightening inquiry into the nature of science, using evolutionary theory as a case study.
Michael Ruse begins with such colorful luminaries as Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and Julian Huxley (brother of novelist Aldous and grandson of T. H. Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog" ) and ends with the work of the English game theorist Geoffrey Parkera microevolutionist who made his mark studying the mating strategies of dung fliesand the American paleontologist Jack Sepkoski, whose computer-generated models reconstruct mass extinctions and other macro events in life's history. Along the way Ruse considers two great popularizers of evolution, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as two leaders in the field of evolutionary studies, Richard Lewontin and Edward O. Wilson, paying close attention to these figures' cultural commitments: Gould's transplanted Germanic idealism, Dawkins's male-dominated Oxbridge circle, Lewontin's Jewish background, and Wilson's southern childhood. Ruse explicates the role of metaphor and metavalues in evolutionary thought and draws significant conclusions about the cultural impregnation of science. Identifying strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the "science wars," he demonstrates that a resolution of the objective and subjective debate is nonetheless possible.
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Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction?
With the recent Sokal hoaxthe publication of a prominent physicist's pseudo-article in a leading journal of cultural studiesthe status of science moved sharply from debate to dispute. Is science objective, a disinterested reflection of reality, as Karl Popper and his followers believed? Or is it subjective, a social construction, as Thomas Kuhn and his students maintained? Into the fray comes Mystery of Mysteries, an enlightening inquiry into the nature of science, using evolutionary theory as a case study.
Michael Ruse begins with such colorful luminaries as Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and Julian Huxley (brother of novelist Aldous and grandson of T. H. Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog" ) and ends with the work of the English game theorist Geoffrey Parkera microevolutionist who made his mark studying the mating strategies of dung fliesand the American paleontologist Jack Sepkoski, whose computer-generated models reconstruct mass extinctions and other macro events in life's history. Along the way Ruse considers two great popularizers of evolution, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as two leaders in the field of evolutionary studies, Richard Lewontin and Edward O. Wilson, paying close attention to these figures' cultural commitments: Gould's transplanted Germanic idealism, Dawkins's male-dominated Oxbridge circle, Lewontin's Jewish background, and Wilson's southern childhood. Ruse explicates the role of metaphor and metavalues in evolutionary thought and draws significant conclusions about the cultural impregnation of science. Identifying strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the "science wars," he demonstrates that a resolution of the objective and subjective debate is nonetheless possible.
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Mystery of Mysteries: Is Evolution a Social Construction?
With the recent Sokal hoaxthe publication of a prominent physicist's pseudo-article in a leading journal of cultural studiesthe status of science moved sharply from debate to dispute. Is science objective, a disinterested reflection of reality, as Karl Popper and his followers believed? Or is it subjective, a social construction, as Thomas Kuhn and his students maintained? Into the fray comes Mystery of Mysteries, an enlightening inquiry into the nature of science, using evolutionary theory as a case study.
Michael Ruse begins with such colorful luminaries as Erasmus Darwin (grandfather of Charles) and Julian Huxley (brother of novelist Aldous and grandson of T. H. Huxley, "Darwin's bulldog" ) and ends with the work of the English game theorist Geoffrey Parkera microevolutionist who made his mark studying the mating strategies of dung fliesand the American paleontologist Jack Sepkoski, whose computer-generated models reconstruct mass extinctions and other macro events in life's history. Along the way Ruse considers two great popularizers of evolution, Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, as well as two leaders in the field of evolutionary studies, Richard Lewontin and Edward O. Wilson, paying close attention to these figures' cultural commitments: Gould's transplanted Germanic idealism, Dawkins's male-dominated Oxbridge circle, Lewontin's Jewish background, and Wilson's southern childhood. Ruse explicates the role of metaphor and metavalues in evolutionary thought and draws significant conclusions about the cultural impregnation of science. Identifying strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the "science wars," he demonstrates that a resolution of the objective and subjective debate is nonetheless possible.
Michael Ruse is the former Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Guelph. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Gifford Lecturer, and the author or editor of more than sixty books.
Table of Contents
Prologue: Science Wars
Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn: Two Theories of Science
Erasmus Darwin: From Fish to Philosopher
Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species
Julian Huxley: Religion without Revelation
Theodosius Dobzhansky: Evolution Comes of Age
Richard Dawkins: Burying the Watchmaker
Stephen Jay Gould: Speaking Out for Paleontology
Richard Lewontin: Adaptation and Its Discontents
Edward O. Wilson: Southern Baptist Meets Charles Darwin
Geoffrey Parker: The Professional's Professional
Jack Sepkoski: Crunching the Fossils
Metaphors and Metavalues: Can Evolution Cut the Mustard?
Epilogue: Terms of Engagement
References
Glossary
Index
What People are Saying About This
Mystery of Mysteries is vintage Michael Ruse. First-hand knowledge of the science and the scientists, incisive historical and philosophical analysis, fluid prose, focus on an important subject. The issue is the objectivity and realism of scientific knowledge, but readers will learn much about evolution and evolutionists.
Francisco J. Ayala
Mystery of Mysteries is vintage Michael Ruse. First-hand knowledge of the science and the scientists, incisive historical and philosophical analysis, fluid prose, focus on an important subject. The issue is the objectivity and realism of scientific knowledge, but readers will learn much about evolution and evolutionists. Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine
Michael Shermer
In one hundred years science historians may identify the past half century the age of the 'science wars'--with armies on one side marshalling their defense of science as an objective enterprise, against the forces on the other claiming science is socially constructed. Michael Ruse's Mystery of Mysteries will be identified as a watershed in the science wars debate, as he navigates the treacherous waters between extremists on both sides and shows us how to find
an intelligent middle route. To find out how science can be both the product of fallible, biased, culture-bound scientists, and a self-correcting method that unveils real facts about reality, read this compelling work by one of the most thoughtful and thought-provoking minds of our age. -- ( Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic magazine, author, Why People Believe Weird Things )
Francisco Ayala
Mystery of Mysteries is vintage Michael Ruse. First-hand knowledge of the science and the scientists, incisive historical and philosophical analysis, fluid prose, focus on an important subject. The issue is the objectivity and realism of scientific knowledge, but readers will learn much about evolution and evolutionists. -- ( Francisco J. Ayala, University of California, Irvine )
Robert J. Richards
The contemporary 'science wars' have made poignant the question of the objectivity of science, and Michael Ruse enters the fray with typical bravura, armed with the weapons of both the philosopher and the historian. He incisively portrays the development of evolutionary thought right up to the present day, enthusiastically exposing the political and religious forces shaping it. While many of the of the contemporary scientists discussed will be made exceedingly uncomfortable by this dismembering of their thought, the reader will take guilty delight in the spectacle˜as well as understand a bit better the power of evolutionary theory. Robert J. Richards, University of Chicago