Science in Theistic Contexts: A Case Study of Alfred Russel Wallace on Human Evolution

Fichman, Martin

doi:10.1086/649346

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Wallace, while continuing to endorse natural selection as the chief principle guiding the evolution of plants and animals, invoked intelligent design for the human mind: "The brain of pre-historic and of savage man seems to me to prove the existence of some power, distinct from that which has guided the development of the lower animals through their ever-varying forms of being" (1871, 343). Martin Fichman (2001) aptly argues that Wallace's theism, rather than an about-face, was an integral part of his evolutionary thinking. Today, both schools of thought continue to exist side by side, with Dawkins and Dennett as examples of strict materialists and Miller and Simon Conway Morris as proponents of theistic evolution.…”

Section: Is There Still a Place For The Design Argument?mentioning

confidence: 99%

PALEY'S iPOD: THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT WITHIN NATURAL THEOLOGY

Cruz

Smedt

2010

Zygon

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The argument from design stands as one of the most intuitively compelling arguments for the existence of a divine Creator. Yet, for many scientists and philosophers, Hume's critique and Darwin's theory of natural selection have definitely undermined the idea that we can draw any analogy from design in artifacts to design in nature. Here, we examine empirical studies from developmental and experimental psychology to investigate the cognitive basis of the design argument. From this it becomes clear that humans spontaneously discern purpose in nature. When constructed theologically and philosophically correctly, the design argument is not presented as conclusive evidence for God's existence but rather as an abductive, probabilistic argument. We examine the cognitive basis of probabilistic judgments in relationship to natural theology. Placing emphasis on how people assess improbable events, we clarify the intuitive appeal of Paley's watch analogy. We conclude that the reason why some scientists find the design argument compelling and others do not lies not in any intrinsic differences in assessing design in nature but rather in the prior probability they place on complexity being produced by chance events or by a Creator. This difference provides atheists and theists with a rational basis for disagreement.

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Section: Is There Still a Place For The Design Argument?mentioning

confidence: 99%

PALEY'S iPOD: THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT WITHIN NATURAL THEOLOGY

Cruz

Smedt

2010

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“…S mith (1972), Kottler (1974), Degler (1991), Browne (1992), Camerini (1993), Seaward and Fitzgerald (1996), Fichman (2001, Knapp et al (2002), Horta (2003), Smith (2004), Vetter (2006), Caso and Gutiérrez (2007), Moreira (2009), Ellen (2011, Kuklick (2011), Bickerton (2014 and Ferguson (2015) are part of Set C, which includes works that omit most or all of the above-mentioned terms and/or do not articulate them mutually. For this reason, they have no utility for historiographical analysis, but illustrate how the absence in Set A of inquiries into Wallace's ethnographic data may reflect on the appropriation of the historical image of this scientific journey in other works that may seek to deal with it.…”

Section: Work On Wallace's Anthropological Views That Deal Directly/mentioning

confidence: 99%

History of the “Human Sciences” and Wallace’s Scientific Voyage in the Amazon: Notes on Historiographical Absences

Silva

2019

Estud. hist. (Rio J.)

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This essay analyses a particular historiographical bibliography with the aim of addressing the divergence between history and history of science. I argue that the absence of the history of the human sciences in the historiography of science expands the distance between the history of science and other disciplines of historical studies. To ponder this hypothesis, I will analyse the historiography of Alfred Russel Wallace’s scientific voyage in the Amazon (1848-1852), arguing that the omission of the ethnographic dimension of this expedition exposes important aspects to understand the nature of such dissension and its effects on the construction of the history of the human sciences.

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“…On the one-hand, Wallace is frequently presented alongside Darwin as the 'co-discoverer' of the theory of evolution by natural selection. However, the sharp differences which later developed between Wallace and more materialist strands of Darwinism have also been widely notedparticularly in terms of Wallace's support for spiritualism and his claims that natural selection was unable to explain the origin of human consciousness and intellect (Fichman 2001). Despite this, Wallace's role as a promoter of evolutionary theory cannot be overstated.…”

Section: Alfred Russell Wallace and Natural Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in life's history: Linking Darwinism and palaeontology in Britain, 1860–1914

Manias

2017

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in

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This paper examines the tension between Darwinian evolution and palaeontological research in Britain in the 1860-1914 period, looking at how three key promoters of Darwinian thinking - Thomas Henry Huxley, Edwin Ray Lankester and Alfred Russell Wallace - integrated palaeontological ideas and narratives of life's history into their public presentations of evolutionary theory. It shows how engagement with palaeontological science was an important part of the promotion of evolutionary ideas in Britain, which often bolstered notions that evolution depended upon progress and development along a wider plan. While often critical of some of the non-Darwinian concepts of evolution professed by many contemporary palaeontologists, and frequently citing the 'imperfection' of the fossil record itself, Darwinian thinkers nevertheless engaged extensively with palaeontology to develop evolutionary narratives informed by notions of improvement and progress within the natural world.

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Science in Theistic Contexts: A Case Study of Alfred Russel Wallace on Human Evolution

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

PALEY'S iPOD: THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT WITHIN NATURAL THEOLOGY

PALEY'S iPOD: THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF THE DESIGN ARGUMENT WITHIN NATURAL THEOLOGY

History of the “Human Sciences” and Wallace’s Scientific Voyage in the Amazon: Notes on Historiographical Absences

Progress in life's history: Linking Darwinism and palaeontology in Britain, 1860–1914

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