Syllabus Fall 2018 HI 482-001 : Darwinism in Science & Society Dr. William Kimler CLASS: MW 1:30-2:45 in Withers 160 OFFICE HOURS: Monday, 10:45-12:00; Wednesday, 10:45-12:00, 3:00 4:30; and by appointment (you may email a request) OFFICE: # 351 Withers Hall Dr. Kimler's homepage PHONE: 919-513-2238 E-MAIL: kimler@ncsu.edu 3 Credit Hours Interdisciplinary Perspectives GEP Prerequisites: 3 hours of History and at least Junior standing About This Course: HI 482 explores a major scientific theory and its development and impact. We start with 18th century views on dynamic history and progress, the nature of humanity, and the methods of science. We will study the development of Darwin's theory of evolution in the 1800s, covering Darwin's life and thinking and analyzing The Origin of Species. Then we will consider the theory's reception by the scientific community and the general public in the late 19th century, examining the scientific and social impact of theories of evolution as they became mainstream science. A number of themes in intellectual history are woven throughout this course, including the nature of science and scientific accomplishment, the nature of intellectual influences, biological views of human nature, and the broader impact of evolutionary thinking. Darwinism is a central doctrine of modern science and a socially potent idea. By studying the history of theories of evolution, you should gain a perspective on one of the most influential scientific ideas affecting the creation of modern thought and on the shaping of this science by other intellectual and social factors. The objectives of the course are for you to: 1) explore a range of scientific and popular literature, since 1800, on the idea of evolution. 2) analyze primary documents, including scientific works, popular literature, memoirs and correspondence, to explain the development and reception of scientific theory 3) more broadly connect evolutionary theories to the scientific and social contexts in which they arose.
The class satisfies the Interdisciplinary Perspectives category of the General Education requirements. The course will help you to distinguish between the distinct approaches of history and science, identify and apply the connections between them, and explore and synthesize the views of the two disciplines. In practice, you should expect to be able to 1) recognize and evaluate cultural influences on the practices and beliefs of science; 2) recognize and apply historical methods and evidence to interpret major issues in the development of science; 3) analyze the theoretical and/or technical constraints on scientific practice by exploring the ideas of science in particular eras; and 4) explain how scientists' methods, practices, or concepts are particular to a time and place. Required Texts: Bowler, Peter J. Evolution: The History of an Idea. (20th Anniversary Ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. [The 3rd edition is also acceptable.] Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species: A Facsimile of the First Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. [You could also access the original 1859 edition through Darwin On-line.] Ellegård, Alvar. Darwin and the General Reader. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990. Numbers, Ronald. Darwinism Comes to America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998. Attendance: Your responsibility to the class is to attend, being familiar with the readings, able to discuss their content, and ready to explore and critique material in class. In addition, you are responsible for material covered in class, independent of the readings. I expect lecture and discussion material to be incorporated into the essays and research paper. Absences and Missed Assignments: Attendance is required. You are allowed 2 unexcused absences. Each additional unexcused absence with result in a 3-point penalty to your final grade. Essays are due in class on the assigned date. You should discuss any problems in meeting the schedule with Dr. Kimler before the due date. You should contact Dr. Kimler as soon as possible, but not more than one week after the return to class, about absence because of illness or emergency. He will arrange the make-up date for an exam or essay in consultation with you. Make-up work for anticipated excused absences must be arranged with Dr. Kimler before exam or essay due dates. Consult the University's Attendance Regulation for the definition of excused absence.
Academic Integrity: Students are bound by the policy on academic integrity as state in the NC State University Code of Student Conduct. You are required to uphold the Honor Pledge ("I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this test or assignment."), and your adherence to academic honesty is certified by your name on the test or assignment. It is your responsibility to know what constitutes plagiarism and avoid it. If you have any questions about what is appropriate scholarly use of sources and citation, see the History Department's site "What is Plagiarism" at and "How to Identify and Avoid Plagiarism". Or talk to Dr. Kimler. Readings and Assignments: The readings include chapters in the textbooks, to provide context and explanation, and mostly short extracts from primary documents online. Analytical Reading Reviews will be assigned in class. Please review the Advice for Analytical Reading Reviews. Graded Work: 50 % : Analytical Reading Reviews are formal 300-500 word analytical summaries for each of the primary sources in the readings. You must do 5 of these Reviews. We will distribute the assigned dates among the class members. Everyone will be assigned a published review of The Origin of Species, so count that as one of your 5 required reviews. 40 % : Research Paper of at least 10 pages [2500 words], plus literature citation. You will pick a topic related to the course material, in consultation with me. By October 1, you will submit a Proposal (1 page) that identifies the topic of your research, the question you will ask, and the potential sources. I expect you to incorporate insights from the course texts, readings, lectures, and discussions, and to have researched the relevant sources. [5% of Research Paper grade] I must approve your choice of a topic. I am available to meet with you in person to help with sources, refining the question, and constructing your paper. By October 31, you will submit a working bibliography and outline. [5% of Research Paper grade] By November 14, you will submit the Introduction to your paper, laying out the question and citing relevant secondary literature [5% of Research Paper grade] Turn in your completed Draft on Wednesday, November 28. No late papers will be accepted. [25% of Research Paper grade -- the final draft will be graded] 10 % : Comments on Research Paper. Each of you will be assigned one classmate's Research Paper, and you will write a review of it.
Summarize the main thesis, indicating concerns or questions you have about the argument. Make suggestions for improvement. (It is not your job to correct grammar or style, although you might indicate where the organization or text is not clear.) Keep in mind that the paper is the author's intellectual property and you may not use it, share it, post it to the web It should go without saying that you will treat your classmate's work with respect and discretion, making helpful suggestions. I will consider any disrespect to be a violation of the standards of integrity of an academic community, and treat accordingly. The Comments are due before class on Monday, December 3. Email them to me, and bring a printed copy to class. We will spend the last two classes discussing your research. You may wish to take class comments on your work into consideration and resubmit your improved paper as the final version. This is due by 1:00 p.m. on Friday, December 14. Guidelines for all papers: Scholarly forms of citation in historical writing are not trivial. You must use a standard citation format in footnotes and bibliographies. My preference follows The Chicago Manual of Style. You could use the Citation Builder service through the Library website, although it would be best for you to learn how to cite by consulting the "Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide" at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Grading scale: A+ 97-100 A 93-96.9 A- 90-92.9 B+ 87-89.9 B 83-86.9 B- 80-82.9 C+ 77-79.9 C 73-76.9 C- 70-72.9 D+ 67-69.9 D 63-66.9 D- 60-62.9 F <60 Credit Only: Students taking a course S/U must complete all assignments and earn a grade of at least C-. Credit Only courses can be included only under the Free Electives category of your curriculum. The deadline for conversion from letter grading to Credit Only (S/U) is October 19.
Electronically-hosted Course Components Students may be required to disclose personally identifiable information to other students in the course, via electronic tools like email or web postings, where relevant to the course. Examples include online discussions of class topics, and posting of student coursework. All students are expected to respect the privacy of each other by not sharing or using such information outside the course. Disability Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations will be made for students with verifiable disabilities. In order to take advantage of available accommodations, you must register with Disability Services for Students (DSS) at 1900 Student Health Center, Campus Box 7509, 919-515-7653. For more information on NC State's policy on working with students with disabilities, please consult the Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Regulation. Students are responsible for reviewing the NC State University policies and regulations which pertain to their course rights and responsibilities: Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy Statement https://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-04-25-05 with additional references at https://oied.ncsu.edu/equity/policies/ Code of Student Conduct https://policies.ncsu.edu/policy/pol-11-35-01 Grades and Grade Point Average https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-50-03 Credit-Only Courses https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-15 Audits https://policies.ncsu.edu/regulation/reg-02-20-04 The course schedule is subject to change with appropriate notification to students. Last modified: 22 August 2018 August 22 Before Darwin: Context and Issues for Nature's History Bowler, Ch. 1 August 27, 29 "Man's Place in Nature": Comparative and direct data on "human nature". Classical primitivism and progressivism. Political philosophy and the "natural state" of humans. Human nature as the basis for society and ethics. Suggestions for a progressive history of life. Bowler, Ch. 3 Adam Ferguson, An Essay on the History of Civil Society (1767), extracts from "Part First. Of the General Characteristics of Human Nature"
In An Essay on the History of Civil Society, Adam Ferguson creates an account of the rationale for civil society based on human nature, while arguing against other such proposals. What kinds of evidence or reasoning does he employ? How does he think a science of humanity should be done? September 5 Natural Theology & Natural Laws: The argument from design. Natural theology in British natural history. The balance of nature in Linnean ecology. The economy of nature and Adam Smith. The Newtonian ideal of science: order, natural causation, consilience. Bowler, Ch. 4 Carl von Linné (Linnaeus), The Œconomy of Nature (1791: Dissertation of Isaac Biberg, 1749). The Œconomy essay is on (the very short) pages 39-129 of this Stillingfleet translation. Linnaeus in The Œconomy of Nature produces a general theory of the how the natural world runs and maintains itself. What are the general principles of this "system" of nature? What assumptions does he make? What kinds of evidence or reasoning does he employ? September 10, 12 New Natural History Exploration and natural history collections. The great chain of being. The comparative method and classification. Scientific rationalism and the data of order. Stratigraphy. Development theories. Fossils and extinctions. Uniformitarian geology, the age of the earth, and epochs of creation. Bowler, Ch. 2 Charles Lyell, The Principles of Geology (1830, Vol. 1) - read Ch. 5 ("Review of the causes which have retarded the progress of Geology"). The entire text is at Electronic Scholarly Publishing Lyell in Principles of Geology defends the new methods and reasoning in "uniformitarian" geology. Analyze his arguments and rhetoric for this science, and against earlier views. Slide Show: Ancient Worlds For the slide show "Ancient Worlds," analyze what these images show about changing ideas of the geological past, or ideas about history, change, progress, ecological order, or other themes we've hit. September 17, 19 Life and Work of Charles Darwin: Social, educational, and professional setting. The naturalist's experience. Bowler, Ch. 5
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, 2nd edition (1845) - extracts. The entire text is at Darwin Online Using the assigned passages from Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, comment on his descriptions and work on ecology or geology or paleontology (fossils). There's a lot here, so concentrate on particular passages that reveal his practices and developing thinking. September 24, 26 Darwin's theoretical method and style. The development of Darwin's theory: evidence, principles, mechanism. The elimination of design and essentialism. Darwin, Notebooks on Transmutation - browse through to see the issues and ideas he noted Charles Darwin, Correspondence - sample the set of letters, during the 1850s, with his confidants Hooker and Gray Darwin discussed the development of his theory with few confidants including Joseph Hooker and Asa Gray in the 1850s. Characterize their interaction and disagreements on the possible theory of evolution. October 1, 3 Science just before The Origin: Geological succession. Development theories. Design & Law. Ellegård, Ch. 1, Ch 6 (to p. 122) Rev. William Buckland, Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural Theology (1837) - read Ch. 2 ("Consistency of Geological Discoveries with Sacred History") [Robert Chambers], Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) examine the Table of Contents and organization of the presentation; skim the introduction; examine at least one chapter for a sense of the argument and scientific style Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone (1858) - read Ch. 3 for the argument rejecting Lamarck's "Theory of Progression" Wallace (1855) "On the Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction of New Species" Darwin & Wallace (1858) joint publication Owen, "On the extinction and transmutation of species" (1859) Huxley, letter to Lyell on transmutation (1859) Buckland and Miller reveal the views of non-evolutionary yet progressive geologists before Darwin's Origin. For either of them, analyze their argument. Chambers [anonymously] created a controversial theory of evolution, largely rejected by naturalists. What is the style and rhetorical structure of his overall view of nature? On the eve of The Origin, Owen and Huxley considered the comparative anatomical and paleontological evidence for "transmutation." What are their core arguments for the possibility of a theory of evolution?
Darwin and Wallace independently developed quite similar arguments for a pattern and mechanism of evolution. What are the differences between their ideas in 1858? October 8, 10 Darwin's On the Origin of Species: The writing of the book. The rhetoric and structure of Darwin's argument. Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859) selections Darwin develops the core logic and persuasiveness of natural selection as the cause of evolution in Chapters 3 and 4 of The Origin. Consider the kinds of evidence, argument, and rhetorical strategy that he presents to make his case. In the last chapter of The Origin, Darwin describes what he expects the reaction and fate of his theory to be. Discuss the way his tone and language and claims work to make a persuasive scenario. October 15, 17 Origin and Reaction Reviews in the press. Categories of opposition and support. Bowler, Ch. 6 Ellegård, Ch. 2 & 13 Assigned Reviews of The Origin Owen, Palaeontology; or, Systematic Summary of Extinct Animals and Their Geological Relations (1861) - read pp. 441-51 on theory of evolution For the review of The Origin of Species that you picked (choice approved in class), summarize the author's view, the tone of his writing, and any point or issue about the review that strikes you as significant. October 22, 24 Cultural Assimilation: The comparative reaction in England, Germany, and America. Popular versions of the struggle for existence. The "reign of law". Laws of progress and historical development. Ellegård, Ch. 3 & Ch 4 Numbers, Introduction, Ch. 1 & Ch 2 Thomas Henry Huxley, "On the Reception of the 'Origin of Species'" (1887) Huxley's retrospective essay on the reception of Darwinism tried to make a case for the rapidity of it acceptance into science and society. Focus on his rhetoric concerning new sciences. October 29, 31 Limits and Alternative Theories:
Scientific doubts on natural selection. The persistence of design and progress. Alternative evolutionary mechanisms and theories. The eclipse and rebirth of the theory of natural selection, 1890-1940. Bowler, Ch. 7 Ellegård, Ch. 12 Darwin and Asa Gray on Design. Darwin, The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication (1868), Vol. II, pp. 430-432. Alfred Russel Wallace, "Darwinism Applied to Man" (1889), pp. 461-78. Vernon L. Kellogg, Darwinism To-Day (1907) - read the Preface and pp. 1-23. Darwin and his friend Gray argued for several years over Darwin's denial of "Design" by the Creator. What are the basic positions explained in the extracts from their letters? How does Darwin argue for rejecting a form of "directed" variation, which would help guide natural selection? Even though A. R. Wallace invented a similar theory of natural selection, in the 1860s he decided it was inadequate to explain the origin and properties of the human mind. What are his basic arguments on the limitations of natural selection as applied to humans? What's his solution? By the early 1900s, strict "Darwinism" was in "eclipse" as the leading theory of evolution. What are the main issues raised by biologists about its inadequacy or replacement? November 5, 7 Religious Accommodation and Resistance: The authority of science and religion. Human nature. Design. The markers of human distinctiveness. Ellegård, Ch. 5, 6 (p. 122- ) & 14 Numbers, Ch. 3 Charles Hodge, What Is Darwinism? (1874), pp. 40-55; 168-78. The whole text is at the Internet Archive. Tyndall, "An Address delivered before the British Association at Belfast" (1874) read pp. 38-52. White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896) read "The Final Effort of Theology" (pp. 70-86). The whole text is at the Internet Archive. William North Rice, Christian Faith in an Age of Science (1903) read "Theological Bearings of Evolution" (pp. 251-285 ). Sedgwick raised the issue of whether Darwinism inevitably leads to atheism, and both pro-and anti-darwinians agreed it did, to suit their own views on religion. What are the basic arguments from the Rev. Charles Hodge? What is Tyndall's argument for scientific support of materialism?
Andrew Dickson White created a strong legacy of seeing religion as fundamentally opposed to and obstructing science throughout history. How does he support this basic argument? The biologist William North Rice disagreed wiht inevitable "conflict," and in a series of books argued for how to reconcile Christianity and the new science. What are his basic reasons for his position? November 12, 14 Views of Human Progress: Scenarios of human origins. The caveman or beast within. Anthropology and the stages of cultural evolution. The popularity of Haeckel, Spencer, Sumner, Bölsche.. Visions of the future. Bowler, Ch. 8 Herbert Spencer, "Progress: Its Law and Causes" (1857) Ernst Haeckel, The History of Creation (1876; NewYork: 1880) - read Ch. 1, "Nature and Importance of the Doctrine of Filiation, or Descent-Theory" William Graham Sumner, "Sociology" (1881) - read pp. 167-80, 191-92 What are the evolutionary ideas that Spencer incorporates into his reasoning about society and social progress? Haeckel's conception of evolution was as a broad, all-encompassing idea. What is the style and rhetorical structure of his overall view of nature? In Sumner's proposal for the natural foundations of social science, what are the evolutionary ideas and parallels he uses? November 19 Topic to be chosen by class November 26, 28 Topic to be chosen by class December 3, 5 Discussion of Research Papers December 14 Final Draft of Research Paper due by 1:00 p.m.