Images of the Economy of Nature, 1650-1930: From "Nature’s War" to Darwin’s "Struggle for Life"

ISBN-13: 9783031310225 / Angielski

Antonello La Vergata

Opis

The book discusses ideas concerning the order and balance of nature (or "economy of nature") from the late 17th century to the early 20th century. The perspective taken is broad, longue durée and interdisciplinary, and reveals the interplay of scientific, philosophical, moral and social ideas. 

 

The story begins with natural theology (dating roughly to the onset of the so-called Newtonian Revolution) and ends with the First World War. The cut-off date has been chosen for the following reasons: the war changed the state of things, affecting man’s way of looking at, and relating to, nature both directly and indirectly; indeed, it put an end to most applications of Darwinism to society and history, including interpretations of war as a form of the struggle for existence.

 

The author presents an overview of the different images of nature that were involved in these debates, especially in the late 19th century, when a large part of the scientific community paid lip service to ‘Darwinism’, while practically each expert felt free to interpret it in his own distinct way.

 

The book also touches on the so-called ‘social Darwinism’, which was neither a real theory, nor a common body of ideas, and its various views of society and nature’s economy. Part of this book deals with the persistence of moralizing images of nature in the work of many authors. 

 

One of the main features of the book is its wealth of (detailed) quotations.  In this way the author gives the reader the opportunity to see the original statements on which the author bases his discussion. The author privileges the analysis of different positions over a historiography offering a merely linear narrative based on general implications of ideas and theories.  

To revisit the concept of the so-called "Darwinian Revolution", we need to examine the various perspectives of scientists and others, their language and, so to speak, the lenses they used when reading "facts" and theories.

 

The book ends with some general reflections on Darwin and Darwinisms (the plural is important) as a case study on the relationship between intellectual history, the history of science and contextual history.

Written by a historian, this book really gives new, multidisciplinary perspectives on the "Darwinian Revolution."

Spis treści

Contents

 

1. Introduction

 

2. Abundance and Variety

2.1                    Natural theology

2.2                    Teleology

2.3                    Evil

2.4                    The Economy of Nature

2.5                    Abundance

2.6                    Variety

2.7                    Contrivances

2.8                    Evil Justified

2.9                    The Usefulness of Destruction

2.10          Checks to Overmultiplication

2.11          Linnaeus: Order Through Destruction

2.12          Buffon: Balances and Counterbalances in a Newtonian Universe

2.13          A Pious Pharmacien’s Hymn to Nature

2.14          Competition Among “Sperm Worms”

2.15          Discord and Compensation

2.16          Consolation in the Slaughterhouse

2.17      Concluding Remarks

Notes

References

 

 

3. Evil in Nature

3.1                   “You Shout ‘All Is well’ in a Lamenting Voice”

3.2                   “A Mixture of Good and Evil”

3.3                   “Truly Philosophical and Christian Consolations”

3.4                   “Tout est bien pour le tout”

3.5                   Compensation, and Some of its Uses

3.6                   Compensation and Perversion

3.7                   Pessimism as an Antidote to Misanthropy, or, Nature as a Stepmother

3.8                   “Blind Will”

Notes

References

 

 

4. Carnivores, Extinctions, and the Beast

4.1                  Predators

4.2                  The Death of Species

4.3                  Death and Happiness

4.4                  Carnivores and Evil

4.5                  Geology and Evil

4.6                  Sin Securalised, or the “Beast Within”…

4.7                  … and the “Beast Without”

4.8                  Conclusion

Notes

References

 

 

5. Struggle for Life vs Evolution

5.1                  Introduction

5.2                  Transformation and Order

5.3                  Competing for Space

5.4                  “Equilibrium in the Number of Species, how Preserved”

5.5                  “Where Is the Balance?”

5.6                  Naval Timber and Colonial Expansion

5.7                  The “Conservative Aspect of the Struggle for Existence”

5.8                  Louis Agassiz’s Version of Design

5.9                  Hardship and Luxuriance

5.10        Struggle in a Southern Hemisphere Perspective

5.11        “Creation by Law” and “Type Forms”

5.12    Conclusion

Notes

References

 

 

6. The Struggle for Existence, or, What’s in a Metaphor?

6.1.    A Multi-Metaphor, or “Struggle Within Struggle”

6.2.    A Look at Darwin’s Files

6.3                 Why Metaphors?

6.4                 Constructing a Metaphor

6.5                 Death of Species and Death of Tribes

6.6                 The “War of Organic Beings”

6.7                 Darwin and Malthus

6.8                 Energy and Improvement

6.9                 The Last Natural Theologian? Or, Darwin on Good and Evil

6.10       Conclusion

Notes

References

 

 

7. New Places in the Economy of Nature

7.1                Darwin the Humboldtian

7.2                Measuring and Contemplating

7.3                Botanical Arithmetic

7.4                Divergence

7.5                Advantages of Diversity

7.6                Spontaneous Variability

7.7                “An Inextricable Net-Work of Relations”

7.8                The Relativity of Adaptation

7.9                “Place in the Economy of Nature”

7.10       Can the Quantity of Life Increase Indefinitely?

7.11       Concluding Remarks

Notes

References

 

8. Survival of the Fittest and Cosmical Evolution

8.1                Change Through Struggle and Exertion

8.2                “Nothing in Nature that Is Not Useful” 

8.3                A Philosopher for all Seasons

8.4                Human Nature

8.5                Progress and Adaptation

8.6                The “Stern Discipline of Nature”

8.7                The Physical Principles of Evolution

8.8                A Digression: Struggle for Life Among Atoms

8.9                Direct and Indirect Equilibration

8.10       Concluding Remarks

Notes

References

 

 

9. Struggles for Existence

9.1                Introduction

9.2                Is There a Struggle for Existence as Darwin Describes It?

9.3                Yes, There Is a Struggle, but…

9.4                Mechanism and Teleology

9.5    “Struggle” Taken Literally

9.6                Warlike Images

9.7                Different Moral Messages

9.8                Mutual Aid vs Struggle

9.9                The “Struggle Against Struggle” and the “Association for the Struggle”

9.10  Strife, Endeavour, and Effort

9.11         Ascent Through Struggle

9.12. Competition, Progress, and Compensation

9.13         “Endeavour after Well-being”

9.14         Translating, Disentangling, Subdividing, Qualifying, and Going Deeper

9.15         Struggle Without and Struggle Within

9.16         Selections

9.17  From Bloody Struggle to the Struggle of Ideas

9.18  Concluding Remarks

Notes

References

 

 

10. Another Now, or a Vindication of a “Historical History of Science” 10.1.  Struggle Discharged

10.2          Revolution or Eclipse?

10.3          Has Moralizing About Nature Ceased?

Notes

References

O autorze

Antonello La Vergata  was full professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia until his retirement in 2022. He has also been visiting professor of the History of Science at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, and at the Stanford University Program in Florence. He was awarded the Prix Marc-Auguste Pictet by the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève (1995), and the “Giuseppe Montalenti Medal” by the Department of Evolutionary Biology “Charles Darwin”, at the University of Rome (2014). He is a member of the editorial board of various scientific/historical journals, and has published over 250 articles and six books. His research areas include: the history of evolution theories; relations between the life sciences, philosophy and the social sciences; war; images of nature and man’s place in nature; science and literature.