A History of Evolutionary Thought

October 29, 2003 5:24 AM

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.
posted by substrate (6 comments total)

Also, an interesting article on macro-evolution, micro-evolution and intelligent design is here.
posted by substrate at 5:35 AM on October 29, 2003

I thought Natural Philosophy was Physics not Biology?
posted by PenDevil at 6:31 AM on October 29, 2003

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.
posted by substrate at 6:39 AM on October 29, 2003

It's been posted before, but here is the official wiki for Quicksilver, for those interested in more information about its topics.
posted by rushmc at 7:29 AM on October 29, 2003

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 ...
posted by hairyeyeball at 6:23 PM on October 29, 2003

Argh, argh argh! My small NY apartment cannot take hardcovers. You taunt me with volumes not yet read!
posted by lumpenprole at 6:21 AM on October 30, 2003