Papers on History of Science
John Cartwright
Chester College

1 The Biographical Approach–a tale of privilege and courage

2 The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge

3 Darwinism and the philosophy of science.

3.1. Science and Creationism

3.2. The Evolution of Memes

4. The Impact of Darwinism on Political Thought

4.1. Social Darwinism

4.2 The Eugenics Movement

References, Further Reading and Web Sites

Web Sites

THE USES OF DARWINISM

This lecture considers the way a topic in the history of science can be used to illustrate various dimensions of the study of science. Darwinism provides a particularly good case study since the life and times of Darwin and his circle are especially well documented and there is an abundance of primary and secondary source material. Moreover, the theory is one of the profoundest in the whole of science, effectively providing an answer to the question "what is life?".

 

 1. The Biographical Approach : A tale of Privilege and Courage

Table 1 Significant Dates and Events in the Life of Darwin

Summary

A study of the life of Darwin indicates the process of scientific creativity and some typical personal circumstances that go into the making of a scientist in the 19th century.

1. He was well placed financially, part of a wealthy family with important connections. Later in life he acquired a small fortune through inheritance and sound investments in land and the railways.

2. Stimulating intellectual background. His family was liberal and freethinking.

3. Serendipity: Darwin met the right people at the right time (Grant, Henslow, Sedgwick, and Lyell)

4. Courage and perseverance. It took great courage to circumnavigate the globe in the 1830s. Darwin was also not put off from pursuing his evolutionary ideas despite their heretical associations. He also struggled against physical illness, likely to have been brought on by anxiety.

5. Tenacity in gathering facts. Darwin was dogged in his collection of an overwhelming body of evidence.

 

Educational value

Students who find science remote abstract and devoid of human interest may be attracted to the study of the history of science through the drama of the lives of scientists.

 

2. The Social Construction of Scientific Knowledge

Darwinism provides a fine illustration of how scientific knowledge and discovery is influenced by the wider social context. The following diagram is an illustration of the main points:

Problem of the Urban Poor

Darwin lived through an industrial revolution. He watched on as the bulk of the British population moved from the countryside to cities. The census of 1831 showed the population of Britain to be 24 million - it had doubled in thirty years. In bad winters one in ten existed on state handouts. Urban overcrowding and poverty brought about misery on a large scale and raised in people’s minds the problem of what to do about the rising numbers of the poor and destitute. One solution proposed by Whig intellectuals and Malthusians like Harriet Martineu was to allow competition to weed out the weak and feckless. The State should not intervene but allow competition to run its course. So in 1831 the law allowing relief to the poor was repealed. The Whigs argued that that this would decrease labour costs.

Malthus and the French Revolution

The French Revolution struck fear into the heart of the English landed classes. What if it should spread to the shores of Britain? Partly as a response, Malthus published his Essay the Principle of Population in 1798 showing that social progress was impossible beyond a certain point and that the egalitarian ideals of the French were useless since human population growth will always outstrip resources leading to poverty and struggle.

It was the reading of Malthus that was decisive. It gave Darwin the crucial concepts of overproduction, struggle, competition and survival of the few. Malthusian ideas were openly debated in Darwin’s circle in 1831. One of the most remarkable co incidences in the history of science is the simultaneous discovery of natural selection by Wallace and Darwin. Wallace himself noted:

The most interesting coincidence in the matter, I think, is, that I, as well as Darwin was led to the theory itself through Malthus.." (quoted in Hubbard, 1979)

Commercial Breeding

As well as an Industrial revolution Britain was passing through an Agrarian revolution. Farmers and commercial breeders were experimenting with new types and varieties of plants and animals. Darwin himself took up pigeon breeding and joined local societies. It was from animal husbandry that Darwin acquired his crucial metaphor of selection. As a commercial breeder selects so too does nature. Note that Darwin himself published on the subject in Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, 1868.

Adam Smith and Laissez faire individualism.

In the Wealth of Nations (1776) Smith showed how the effect of the actions of numerous individuals each pursuing their own self-interested goals could lead to a general picture of harmony and stability. This laissez faire mentality probably influenced Darwin. Darwin was a Whig and his political allegiances lay with the emerging middle classes: the entrepreneurs, the professional and managerial classes. Darwinism provides a similar analysis of the natural world: the macroscopic is to be understood by examining the actions of atomistic individuals. What may appear as a picture of harmony and co-operation is in reality the combined effect of selfish intentions. Marx and Engels were aware of this congruence in ideas at the time. In 1862 Marx wrote to Engels:

"it is remarkable how Darwin recognises among beasts and plants his English society with its division of labour, competition, opening up of new markets, "inventions" and the Malthusian "struggle for existence". It is Hobbes’s "bellum omnium contra omnes"[war of all against all] ... (quoted in Hubbard, 1979)

At a more general level we should note that evolution was in the air. Numerous thinkers were speculating in the 1840s and 1850s about organic and social evolution. It is noteworthy that the phrase "survival of the fittest" so often associated with Darwin came in fact from Herbert Spencer who used it in an essay written in 1851 referring to the growth of human populations. Just as Darwin took up ideas from the wider culture, moulded them and used them to good scientific effect, so too his ideas were readily reapplied in the form of Social Darwinism.

 The Royal Navy and voyages of exploration

Britain in the 1830s was a powerful maritime nation. Her wealth depended on trade and exploration. It was such concerns that led to the mission of the Beagle: to survey the coast of South America. The ship was also to carry on board a naturalist and some scientific equipment. Imperial expansion and the cataloguing of nature were part of a similar colonising mentality.

Victorian Sex Roles

It is easy to see, especially in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), that Darwin subscribed to a view that the sexual division of labour and abilities of Victorian men and women was somehow natural:

"The chief distinction in the intellectual powers of the two sexes is shown by man’s attaining to a higher eminence, in whatever he takes up, than can women - whether requiring deep thought, reason, or imagination, or merely the use of the senses and hands... the average mental power in man must be above that of women.."

Educational Value

Through this analysis students come to see that science does not take place in a cultural vacuum. Science is fostered by a wider culture; scientists use resources (intellectual and material) from the wider culture and contribute to that culture in turn.

Questions for discussion: Is the truth-value of a theory somehow brought into question by a demonstration of social influences ? 

3. Darwinism and the philosophy of science

3.1 Science and Creationism

In the USA religious fundamentalists have adopted at least 3 tactics:

1. Ban teaching of evolution, e.g. Tennessee (1925) - hence the Dayton trial - Mississippi (1926), Arkansas (1928) and Texas (1929)

2. Re-label Creationism as Creationist Science and demand that as a science it should be taught alongside Darwinism

3. Declare evolution to be only a "controversial theory" (Alabama 1995 passed a law insisting that biology books should carry a sticker describing evolution as controversial).

4. Remove evolution from state-wide exams . (Kansas, 1999)

 

Response

1. In 1968 the US Supreme Court invalidated the Arkansas statute on the grounds of the first amendment - law found to be unconstitutional since education should not be tailored to the needs of one specific religious group

2. 1987 the US Supreme court held the Creationism Act of Louisiana unconstitutional since creation science endorsed religion.

Discussion Point

Is evolution bad science because no one actually observed the events? Is evolution a theory or fact?

 3.2 The Evolution of Memes

Consider once again the four minimum conditions for natural selection to take place:

1. There exists in the world entities capable of self replication.
2. The process of replication is not perfect, errors are made and the next copy may not perfectly resemble its template.
3. The number of copies of entities that can be made depends on the structure of the entities in their interaction with the world outside such as the ability to sequester resources.
4.  As a result of the finite nature of resources, operating spaces and so on these entities experience differential reproductive success, i.e. some have more favourable structures than others for the process of self replication

 t is easy to appreciate that the entities above may not be strands of DNA. It is more of a shock to realise that the entities may not need to be physical at all; they may, in short, be ideas existing in and moving between brains.

 The Spread of Memes

Discussion Points

Is this new subject of ‘memetics’ and amusing analogy or does it have real power to explain the transmission of culture?

 

THE PROFUNDITY OF DARWINISM

WHO ARE WE?

A primate. Homo sapiens.

A naked ape, placed here without explanation,

staring at the stars, crying out for a destiny.

WE DID WE COME FROM?

Our parents.

Our ancestors.

Homo habilis.

Homo erectus.

Australopithecines.

Ape-like mammals roaming the African plains about 7 million years ago.

Small rodent-like mammals left after the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 Ma ago.

WHY ARE WE HERE?

The ancestors from whom we are descended left copies of their genes; nobody is descended from an infertile ancestor. The genes carried by our ancestors that we have inherited enabled them to survive and leave copies of themselves

Discussion Point

Are these answers adequate, satisfying, compelling ?

4. The Impact of Darwinism on Political Thought

"Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it" (Santayana)

4.1 Social Darwinism

i. Evolution, if left unchecked, is progressive and will lead to a gradual improvement in the human condition.

ii. Evolution delivers desirable outcomes when left unhindered. It follows that the proper role for the state is laissez faire. Spencer, for example, took this so far as to advocate that the State should not create schools or even build lighthouses.

4.2 Eugenics flourished in Britain 1880 - 1930 , in Germany 1930 –1945 and in the USA 1910- 1950. Eugenics itself has two sides:

i Positive eugenics: the enhancement of the gene pool or the national stock by encouraging the fit and healthy to breed.

ii Negative eugenics: the elimination of the genetically unfit by sterilisation or death

Discussion points

1. Is Social Darwinism a sound political philosophy? If not what is wrong with it?

2. What is wrong with Eugenics as a policy in terms of

a) Morality

b) Practicality

3. Is Eugenics creeping in through the back door with prenatal screening for genetic abnormalities?

 

References, Further Reading and Web Sites

Bowler, P. (1982). Evolution :The History of an Idea. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press.

Cartwright, J. (2000) Evolution and Human Behaviour: Darwinian perspectives on human nature. London, Macmillan

Darwin, C. (1859). On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection. London, John Murray.

Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Dawkins, R. (1986). The Blind Watchmaker. London, Longman.

Desmond, A. and J. Moore (1991). Darwin. London, Michael Joseph.

Lively, extremely well written biography of Darwin. Not much about the science of evolution but a penetrating analysis of the social context of Darwin’s ideas.

MacKenzie, D. (1976). "Eugenics in Britain." Social Studies of Science 6: 499-532.

Midgely, M. (1978) Beast and Man, the biological roots of human nature, Methuen

Oldroyd, D. R. (1980) Darwinian Impacts : an introduction to the Darwinian revolution, Open University Press

Richards, J. R. (1987) Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behaviour, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.

Ridley, M. (1996). The Origins of Virtue. London, Viking (Penguin Group).

Web Sites

http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Departments/Darwin/calintro.html Correspondence of Darwin

http://www.1.umn.edu/ships/ lots of resources on history of science (ships stands for sociology, history and philosophy of science)

www.bshs.org.uk the site of the British Society for the History of Science. Plenty of links

http://depts.washington.edu/hssexec/ the site of the American History of Science Society

http://www.man.ac.uk/science_Engineering/CHSTM the centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at Manchester

http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/index1.htm the Alfred Russell Wallace page

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/evolution.html

Good material on history of evol thought with biographies

http://157.242.64.83/HBES/websites.htm

Plenty of links here, part of the Human Behaviour and Evolution Society Website

http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/headlines.htm

The unofficial Dawkins Web site but well constructed with masses of links to useful sites and recent developments