On the Origin of Theories: Charles Darwin’s Vocabulary of Method

Abstract This is an essay on the origin of theories. It argues that methodology can do more than shape scientific theories—sometimes, vocabularies of method become such theories. The origin of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is a case in point: Darwin’s well-known attention to methodological matters not only framed but bled into his theory of nature. A careful student of contemporary methodology, Darwin sought guidance for using a controversial tool in the scientific world in which he came of age: the hypothesis. In the process of reading the works of John Herschel and William Whewell, Darwin turned nature itself into a man of science. The hypotheses and testing of scientific practice were mirrored in the variations and selection of the natural world. Though unintentional, Darwin’s naturalization of a vocabulary of method helped pave the way for applications of evolutionary theory to the study of the human mind and, completing the circle, to the philosophy of science. Considering the role of vocabularies of method in the origin of theories suggests new directions for the study of cognitive history and the power of language to transform the historical imagination.

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2. Evolution and natural selection

Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction ◽

10.1093/actrade/9780198806998.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 9-26

Author(s):

Samir Okasha

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Natural World ◽

Early 20Th Century ◽

Philosophical Argument ◽

Modern Biology ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

Philosophical Significance ◽

Argument From Design ◽

Evolution By Natural Selection

In 1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which he set out his theory of evolution. The book marked a turning point in our understanding of the natural world and revolutionized biology. ‘Evolution and natural selection’ outlines the theory of evolution by natural selection, explaining its unique status in biology and its philosophical significance. It considers how Darwin’s theory undermined the ‘argument from design’, a traditional philosophical argument for the existence of God; how the integration of Darwin’s theory with genetics, in the early 20th century, gave rise to neo-Darwinism; and why, despite evolutionary theory being a mainstay of modern biology, in society at large there is a marked reluctance to believe in evolution.

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Henry Walter Bates—his life and contributions to biology

Archives of Natural History ◽

10.3366/anh.1995.22.2.195 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 195-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

JAMES E. O'HARA

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Natural History ◽

Natural World ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

Geographical Society ◽

Alfred Russel Wallace ◽

Popular Book ◽

Spare Time ◽

Evolution By Natural Selection ◽

Number Of Publications

Henry Walter Bates was born in Leicester, England, on 8 February 1825. Early in life he developed a keen interest in natural history in general, and in insects in particular. He met and befriended Alfred Russel Wallace, and in 1848 the two embarked on a collecting expedition to the Amazon Valley. They soon parted company and thereafter collected separately in different areas of Amazonia. Bates returned to England 11 years later, in 1859. He was quick to embrace Darwin's and Wallace's theory of evolution by natural selection, and was one of the first to back the theory with evidence from the natural world. A case in point was Bates's theory of mimicry, which now bears his name. In 1863, his popular book The Naturalist on the River Amazons was published. Bates took the post of Assistant Secretary at the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1864 and continued in that position until his death in 1892. During that period he produced in his spare time a prodigious number of publications in systematic entomology, mostly on Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Many of his works were accompanied by insightful discussions of zoogeography, thus distinguishing Bates as one of the more remarkable and progressive systematists of his time.

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Worlds Olio

Margaret Cavendish ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190664053.003.0002 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 23-39

Author(s):

David Cunning

Keyword(s):

Social Order ◽

Natural World ◽

Human Beings ◽

Men And Women ◽

Medical Experimentation ◽

Gender Similarities ◽

Similarities And Differences ◽

The Senses ◽

Selection Of

This chapter features a selection of excerpts from Cavendish’s book, Worlds Olio. The passages treat a number of topics and issues: whether or not there are inherent capability differences between men and women; gender; similarities and differences between human beings and (other) animals; happiness; fame; desire; self-love; forms of government; social order; the authority and reach of philosophy; the role of the senses in cognition; medical experimentation and disease; God; predestination; and the regularity that is exhibited in the natural world. The chapter begins with a preface in which Cavendish speaks very negatively of the capacities of women, at one point saying that “Women have no strength nor light of Understanding, but what is given them from Men.” The reader can decide against the background of other texts in the corpus whether Cavendish is embracing an anti-feminist position here or whether she is being ironic.

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Revolutions in the head: Darwin, Malthus and Robert M. Young

The British Journal for the History of Science ◽

10.1017/s0007087420000631 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-19

Author(s):

James A. Secord

Keyword(s):

Vietnam War ◽

History Of Science ◽

Political Action ◽

Population Control ◽

Military Conflict ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

History Of ◽

Political Associations ◽

Evolution By Natural Selection

Abstract The late 1960s witnessed a key conjunction between political activism and the history of science. Science, whether seen as a touchstone of rationality or of oppression, was fundamental to all sides in the era of the Vietnam War. This essay examines the historian Robert Maxwell Young's turn to Marxism and radical politics during this period, especially his widely cited account of the ‘common context’ of nineteenth-century biological and social theorizing, which demonstrated the centrality of Thomas Robert Malthus's writings on population for Charles Darwin's formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection. From Young's perspective, this history was bound up with pressing contemporary issues: ideologies of class and race in neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory, the revival of Malthusian population control, and the role of science in military conflict. The aim was to provide a basis for political action – the ‘head revolution’ that would accompany radical social change. The radical force of Young's argument was blunted in subsequent decades by disciplinary developments within history of science, including the emergence of specialist Darwin studies, a focus on practice and the changing political associations of the history of ideas. Young's engaged standpoint, however, has remained influential even as historians moved from understanding science as ideology to science as work.

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Epilogue

To Master the Boundless Sea ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469640440.003.0008 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 202-210

Author(s):

Jason W. Smith

Keyword(s):

Marine Environment ◽

Marine Corps ◽

Natural World ◽

Naval Warfare ◽

Scientific World ◽

Strategic Role ◽

National Security State ◽

The Cold War ◽

The U.S

The epilogue tracks the evolution of naval science and its relationship to the broader scientific world into the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries with attention to the growing strategic role of cartography, oceanography, and marine science within the Cold War national security state, the emergence of submarine warfare, and the militarization of science in weaponizing nature itself. The epilogue argues that while science became even more central to strategic discourse and naval warfare more generally, it continued to have a fraught place within the Navy’s ranks and its significance was not continuously appreciated among naval leaders even as the U.S. Marine Corps in the interwar period placed strategic knowledge of the natural world at the foundation of its emerging amphibious assault doctrine. Finally, the epilogue makes some general claims about the significance of the marine environment to naval affairs in the present day by linking the Navy’s strategic visions to a marine environment made more violent and dynamic by the influence of climate change as well as the renewed importance of hydrographers historic methods and data as baselines from which to understand the degree of change in the world’s oceans.

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Recognition of how to Computational Simulate the Formation Processes of Biological Phenomena in Algorithmic Architecture

European Journal of Sustainable Development ◽

10.14207/ejsd.2019.v8n2p404 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 404

Author(s):

Yashar Gharachamani Asl ◽

Mohammad Baharvand ◽

Sahar Toofan

Keyword(s):

Natural World ◽

Pattern Generation ◽

Generation Process ◽

Form Generation ◽

Biological Phenomena ◽

Library Research ◽

A Genome ◽

Computational Systems ◽

Selection Of

There is a long history behind the idea of contemplating the natural world and paying attention to the ways biological phenomena develop and grow rather than trying to merely imitate them in a superficial manner. However, until recently the scientific and technological capabilities had not advanced enough to implement this concept. This was perhaps the result of a superficial selection of complex and ungraspable subjects that could not be implemented due to a lack of scientific knowledge and technical capabilities. However, nowadays it is possible to have a deeper understanding of the principles of form creation thanks to the technical and scientific developments in the past few decades. The patterning and imitation processes go beyond the formal scope to encompass the entire knowledge of how biological components are formed, providing valuable area for pattern generation. Such a new method of imitating nature can be found in algorithmic design, which is to make use of computation as the main part of computer activities through algorithms and codes and programs, like a genome in nature. The main goal of this research is to provide a clear framework and a systematic approach to the role of computational generative systems in the form generation process. For this purpose, the present study uses a descriptive-analytical method based on library research, to study and categorize and describe characteristics, mechanism of the computational systems used in form creation and Compare them. It concludes that computational systems inspired by biological principles can play an important role in the process of computational form generation in architecture. Keywords: Algorithmic Architecture, generative systems, biological systems, growth pattern, computation.

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The Role of Non-Adaptive Design Doctrine in Evolutionary Thought

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel12040282 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 282

Author(s):

Cornelius Hunter

Keyword(s):

Adaptive Design ◽

Theory Development ◽

Natural World ◽

Adaptive Designs ◽

Early Nineteenth Century ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

Evolutionary Thought ◽

Theological Belief ◽

Design Ideas

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was, to a certain extent, influenced and shaped by external factors, including the milieu of ideas in the early-nineteenth century, regarding how the natural world should be understood. Therefore, these ideas and their influences have received considerable attention. The role of non-adaptive design ideas, however, has not been fully explored. In particular, Darwin’s requirement and rejection of the religious doctrines of adaptive and non-adaptive design, respectively, are important and often unappreciated. Here, I analyze these ideas and how they influenced Darwin’s theory of evolution. I find they played an important role in both his theory development and justification, revealing a core theological belief in Darwin’s theory; namely, that the creator would not create non-adaptive designs. This paper explores this belief and its context.

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The role of antibodies in the light of the theory of evolution

10.31219/osf.io/kp5dx ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Helene Banoun

Keyword(s):

Viral Infections ◽

Cell Types ◽

Protective Role ◽

Theory Of Evolution ◽

Research And Teaching ◽

History Of ◽

Shed Light ◽

Antibody Secreting Cells ◽

Selection Of

The phenomenon of facilitation of viral infections by antibodies (ADE antibody dependent enhancement) as well as the resistance of agammaglobulinemia patients to certain viruses are in contradiction with the protective role of antibodies affirmed by classical immunology. This must be compared to the opsonizing antibodies that promote the specific phagocytosis of extra-cellular bacteria. However, questions about the role of antibodies have been raised since the beginning of the history of immunology. More recently, Pierre Sonigo has shed light on the contradictions between the finalist interpretation of the role of lymphocytes and the theory of evolution: how can it be explained that cells are selected to protect the organism they constitute? The role of anti-viral and anti-intracellular bacteria antibodies could be to allow phagocytosis by the cells: either directly by the Fc fragment of immunoglobulins, or via the complement for many cell types. This makes it easy to understand the selection of antibody- secreting cells. Natural selection favors the cells that produce the most affine Ig and thus guides the maturation of the proB cell to the plasma cell. A review of recent publications in theoretical immunology is consistent with this hypothesis. The theory of evolution should be integrated at every level of research and teaching in immunology, as it is for biology as a whole.

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