Tag: Victorians
Natural Selection: The Evolution of a Mirage
Natural selection reveals itself as not just a metaphor but a mixed one: Nature being dumb but nevertheless capable of discrimination.
Darwin, Lyell, and a Tale of Two Faiths
Darwin found himself in the unhappy position of having his faith undermined by what he saw as the non-directed processes of geological and biological evolution.
On Darwinism and the Abdication of Reason
It is a pity that Darwin’s homeland no longer boasts a satirist of the caliber of Thomas Love Peacock to exploit this rich seam of comic absurdity.
Why Words Matter: Sense and Nonsense in Science
One might, with Darwin, theorize that the development of the biosphere was simply down to that empirically unattested variant of chance, “natural selection.”
Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith
Fleeming Jenkin (the distinguished Scottish scientist who with Lord Kelvin spearheaded the laying of the transatlantic cable) was particularly scathing.