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For scientists, no event better represents the contest between form and function as the chief organizing principle of life as the debate between Georges Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. This book presents the first comprehensive study of the celebrated French scientific controversy that focused the attention of naturalists in the first decades of the nineteenth century on the conflicting claims of teleology, morphology, and evolution, which ultimately contributed to the making of Darwin's theory. This history describes not only the scientific dimensions of the controversy and its impact on individuals and institutions, but also examines the meaning of the debate for culture and society in the years before Darwin.
A classic confrontation and its interpretations; Cuvier and Geoffroy: Collaborators on a new science; "Le legislateur de la science" Cuvier and functionalist anatomy; Geoffroy and the emergence of philosophical anatomy; The battle lines are drawn: 1820-1829; The debate before the academie; Beyond the academie: The many uses of the debate; Teleology, morphology, and evolution: The debate and the future of zoology.
"Appel has illuminated brilliantly the French intellectual scene in the 19th century...Under consideration are not only biological aspects of the debate, but also its religious, social and political backgrounds, and its later influence on evolutionary theory and other modalities of culture and intellect...This beautifully organized, elegantly written book, based on sound research, is recommended strongly to readers interested in the forms and functions of the organism that is science."--The Scientist
"The most thorough analysis we have of the controversy at issue; it will also no doubt become a required reading for historians of French biology in the first half of the last century, as well as for sociologists interested in unravelling the intricacies of scientific controversies."--Science
"The dispute between the zoologists Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844)... has long been recognized as an important episode in the history of the life s
