This book offers a thorough reanalysis of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, which for many people represents the work that alone gave rise to evolutionism. Of course, scholars today know better than that. Yet, few resist the temptation of turning to the Origin in order to support it or reject it in light of their own work. Apparently, Darwin fills the mythical role of a founding figure that must either be invoked or repudiated. The book is an invitation to move beyond what is currently expected of Darwin's magnum opus. Once the rhetorical varnish of Darwin's discourses is removed, one discovers a work of remarkably indecisive conclusions.

The book comprises two main theses:

(1) The Origin of Species never remotely achieved the theoretical unity to which it is often credited. Rather, Darwin was overwhelmed by a host of phenomena that could not fit into his narrow conceptual framework.

(2) In the Origin of Species, Darwin failed at completing the full conversion to evolutionism. Carrying many ill-designed intellectual tools of the 17th and 18th centuries, Darwin merely promoted a special brand of evolutionism, one that prevented him from taking the decisive steps toward an open and modern evolutionism.

It makes an interesting read for biologists, historians and philosophers alike.

Auteur
Richard G. Delisle owns a PhD in paleoanthropology (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) and a PhD in philosophy (University of Montreal, Canada). He teaches evolutionary biology and history/philosophy of science in the programs of archaeology, philosophy, and liberal education at the University of Lethbridge (Canada). His research interest focuses on the multidisciplinary quest of understanding evolutionary studies under the intimate light of its past and current developments.

Contenu

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Darwin in the Large Intellectual Context

Recalibrating Darwin's image

Sketch of an intellectual framework

The multiple faces of Darwin: John C. Greene, Michael Ruse, and Robert J. Richards

A static worldview: The main theses of this book

Part I: Historical Shallowness

Chapter 1: Evolution in a Fully Constituted Word

The completeness of the world

Neontology versus paleontology: the double epistemological standard Recycling today's variations A closed, permanent and segmented tree of life Archetypes, ancestors, or shadows?

Conclusion of part I

Part II: To Travel in Geographical Space is to Travel in Geological Time

Chapter 2: Imposing Order Upon Complexity: Divergence Forward in Time (Origin, chap. 1-5, 8)

The Origin of Species: The argumentative structure of a book The tradition of natural theology From the economy of nature (Linnaeus) to the principle of divergence (Darwin) Divergence forward in time

How to segregrate entities bound in reproductive networks? Natural selection: a force blurring affiliative signs?

Graduated lower entities or intertwined strains?

The exhaustion of the evolutionary dynamics over time Conclusion

Chapter 3: The Wild Power of Natural Selection: Vertical Evolution, Analogies, and Imaginary Scenarios (Origin, chap. 6-7) p

Looking for transitions: Darwin's explicit method Case studies: Squirrels, ants, and flying creatures Case study: The rise of complex eyes The homology-analogy spectrum The unity of type (descent) versus the conditions of existence (natural selection) Conclusion

Chapter 4: An Attempt at Taming Natural Selection With Convergence Backward in Time, Part I (Origin, chap. 11-12)

The structure of Darwin's theory: Levels of explanation A research program on biogeography Case study: Alpine plants in the Northern Hemisphere Case study: The Galapagos Islands Case study: A worldwide dispersal from around the North Pole The weak contingency thesis versus the strong contingency thesis Conclusion

Chapter 5: An Attempt at Taming Natural Selection With Convergence Backward in Time, Part II (Origin, chap. 13) Blurred phylogenetic connections: Facing analogies and deleted affiliation The limitations of systematics The limitations of morphology, embryology, and comparative anatomy Conclusion of part II

Part III: Evolutionary Dynamics

Chapter 6: Cyclicity, Evolutionary Equilibrium, and Biological Progress

Darwin and biological progress

Thwarting biological progress

Motion in a closed system: Recycling mechanical devices Rotating shafts: Fixed taxonomic categories and cycling taxonomic categories Opening and closing devices Increasing population versus decreasing population A world fully stocked versus a world not fully stocked Atomism versus connectedness Conclusion of part III

Part IV: A Question of Methods

Chapter 7: Methodologies for a World Already Revealed

Behind a science of real cause (vera causa) From ontology to methodology and back The touchstone of Darwin's methodology: uniformitarianism Conclus...