Author: Neil Thomas
The Enlightenment (Re)turn to Atomism
What distinguished thinkers had long called out for its manifest absurdity was now, Phoenix-like, rising from the ashes.
Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus
Darwinism, when viewed from a philosophical perspective, might more accurately be understood as a late sub-branch of ancient speculative thought.
Darwinian Theory: Science or Speculative Philosophy?
Bottom line: Darwin did not have a single scrap of empirical fieldwork to document his conjectures.
Myth-Making and Malthus
After reading Malthus out of personal interest, it dawned on Darwin how he might usefully appropriate the Malthusian analogy.
The Legacy of Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus even touched on the theory of natural selection when he concluded that the strongest and most active animals would propagate the species.