Comments on: A History of Evolutionary Thought

A History of Evolutionary Thought

substrate — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 05:24:13 -0800

Why, I'll be a monkey's uncle! (Or is that great-great-great-grandson?) I've been reading Neal Stephenson's latest novel, Baroque Cycle Volume 1: Quicksilver and was intrigued by the descriptions of the natural philosophers. I had learned about their laws and how they were discovered in high school and university but not about their other investigations. Intrigued I searched for a bit of additional information and came up with the linked site. It provides biographies and links to other biographies of many natural philosophers.

By: substrate

substrate — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 05:35:57 -0800

Also, an interesting article on macro-evolution, micro-evolution and intelligent design is here.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 06:31:23 -0800

I thought Natural Philosophy was Physics not Biology?

By: substrate

substrate — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 06:39:03 -0800

I don't think it's exactly physics or biology. It's the study of the universe. So living things are part of this as are the motion of planets. Dictionary.com seems to agree with me, though one of the sub-notes would indicate that originally it was a study of nature in general but has now narrowed to just physics. My understanding was that all of the early scientists were natural philosophers, but under the narrower modern definition not all of them would've been even though they considered themselves such.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 07:29:45 -0800

It's been posted before, but here is the official wiki for Quicksilver, for those interested in more information about its topics.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 13:13:33 -0800

I know I've posted this before, but the best course I took in school was History of Science. I highly recommend Steven Shapin's The Scientific Revolution as a good and thought provoking intro on the subject.

By: hairyeyeball

hairyeyeball — Wed, 29 Oct 2003 18:23:14 -0800

I'm on my second readthrough of the sci-fi guru's neopicaresque. May it do for Milton and DeFoe what it has done for Hooker and Huysmans ...

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Thu, 30 Oct 2003 06:21:53 -0800

Argh, argh argh! My small NY apartment cannot take hardcovers. You taunt me with volumes not yet read!