Tag: Lucretius
The Ghost of Epicurus and the Doctrine of Natural Selection
The classical pantheon, lacking moral credibility, had become a source of embarrassment to thoughtful Greeks.
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.
Natural Selection: Discovery or Invention?
Denis Diderot mooted the possibility of a creature evolving through habitual functioning into another form of life altogether.