John Lubbock, science, and the liberal intellectual

Abstract

John Lubbock's longest-standing scientific research interest was entomology. Some of his earliest systematic investigations of insect and marine life began under the tutelage of Darwin. Darwin shaped the trajectory of, and the programme for, Lubbock's natural history work. However, to understand John Lubbock's identity as a scientist, he must be located within the context of the Victorian 'intellectual'. This paper traces Lubbock's entomological work from its early development under Darwin to his later work on insect sensory physiology and comparative psychology. Far from being the death of his scientific career, Lubbock's entry into Parliament marked the pinnacle of his career as a scientific intellectual. He built on his early work on invertebrate anatomy, physiology and taxonomy, and on his archaeological and anthropological research to expound his vision of mental evolution. His research on 'savages', on ants, bees and wasps, and on his dog, 'Van', permitted him to expatiate upon the psychic unity of all sentient beings, which, in turn, underpinned his overarching educational programme.

Neanderthal and the fossilization of the Third World

“…Lubbock and Christy engaged in a close dialogue in 1864 (Collins, 1976: 23), just prior to Lubbock publishing his fifty-year bestselling Pre-historic Times . In this period Lubbock, whose belief in free trade was as unshakable as Christy’s, became the first president of the Institute of Bankers and, in a move directly supported by Spencer and the ultimate free trade champion John Stuart Mill (James Mill’s son), a Member of Parliament (Clark, 2014). In Pre-historic Times Lubbock (1865) argued that ‘modern savages’ stand as living representations of the early stages of White ‘development’ and that the Neander Valley skull was indeed not merely that of a diseased modern individual.…”