Owen's Ape and Darwin's Bulldog Beyond Darwinism and Creationism

About this book

With the debate between Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley on the differences between the ape and human brains as its focus, this book explores some of the ways in which philosophical ideas and scientific practice influenced the discussion of evolution in the years before and after Darwin's publication of "Origin of Species" in 1859. It also shows how this episode can shed light on current philosophical notions of scientific practice and how they in turn influence our understanding of the history of science. The book advances the current historical discussion of the Owen-Huxley debate by making clear that Owen's anatomical claims had much more support than most historians and philosophers of science assume.

Contents

List of Illustrations; AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: On the Origin of the Darwin WarsAnalytic Table of Contents1. The Parable of the Hippopotamus Major; 2. Philosophical Anatomy and the Human Soul; 3. Evolution and the Discovery of the Gorilla; 4. Does the Brain Distinguish Human from Beast?; 5. Economics and Values on the Eve of the Origin; 6. The Values and Metaphysics of Darwin's Origin; 7. Why Owen Rejected Darwin's Analysis; 8. Huxley's Hippocampus Counter-Attack; 9. The Dissection of a Metaphysical Dispute; 10. Ethics, Experience, and TruthAppendix 1. Excerpt from Owen's 1851 Article on Ape and Human Brain Size; Appendix 2. The Concluding Pages of Owen's Anatomy of Vertebrates (1868) on Evolution, the Origins of Life, Metaphysics, and Theology; Bibliography; Index

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