Research Catalog

Title

Monad to man : the concept of progress in evolutionary biology / Michael Ruse.

Author

Ruse, Michael.

Publication

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 628 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• Ubiquitous in Darwin's time, the idea of an unceasing improvement in life insinuated its way into evolutionary theory from the first. In interviews with today's major figures in evolutionary biology - including Stephen Jay Gould, Edward O. Wilson, Ernst Mayr, and John Maynard Smith - and in an intimate look at the discoveries and advances in the history and philosophy of science, Ruse finds this belief just as prevalent today - however it might be denied or obscured.
• His book traces the delicate line between those who argue that science is and must be objective and those who deem science a "social construction" in the fashion of religion or the rest of culture. It offers an unparalleled account of evolutionary theory, from popular books to museums to the most complex theorizing, at a time when its status as science is under greater scrutiny than ever before.

Subject

• Evolution (Biology) > Philosophy
• Evolution (Biology) > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Progress and Culture -- 2. The Birth of Evolutionism -- 3. The Nineteenth Century: From Cuvier to Owen -- 4. Charles Darwin and Progress -- 5. Evolution as World View -- 6. The Professional Biologist -- 7. Evolution Travels West -- 8. British Evolutionists and Mendelian Genetics -- 9. Discipline Building in Britain -- 10. The Genetics of Populations -- 11. The Synthesis -- 12. Professional Evolutionism -- 13. Contemporary Debates -- 14. Conclusion.

ISBN

0674582209 (alk. paper)

LCCN

96018951

OCLC

• 34690860
• ocm34690860

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries