Article ID: CBB001420094

Darwin's Foil: The Evolving Uses of William Paley's Natural Theology 1802--2005 (2014)

unapi

Shapiro, Adam R. (Author)


Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Volume: 45
Pages: 114--123


Publication Date: 2014
Edition Details: Article in a special section, “Disciplining and Popularizing: Evolution and Its Publics from the Modern Synthesis to the Present”
Language: English

This essay traces the divergent readings of William Paley's 1802 Natural Theology from its initial publication to the recent controversies over intelligent design. It argues that the misinterpretation of the Natural Theology as a scientific argument about the origins of complex life---which Darwin's Origin of Species refutes---did not develop all at once. Rather this reading evolved gradually, drawing from a variety of uses and appropriations during the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This study demonstrates the fluidity of science and religion during these centuries, and highlights the role that genres of science popularization play in altering the meaning of those categories.

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Article Smocovitis, Vassiliki Betty (2014) Disciplining and Popularizing: Evolution and Its Publics from the Modern Synthesis to the Present. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (p. 111). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420094/

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Authors & Contributors
Ruse, Michael
Numbers, Ronald L.
Mazzeo, Marco
Jonathan R. Topham
Wilmer, Clive
Topham, Johnathan R.
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Azimuth
Science and Education
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Journal of Biosciences
History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences
Publishers
Princeton University Press
Harvard University Press
Wiley-Blackwell
University of Chicago Press
University of California Press
Palgrave Macmillan
Concepts
Evolution
Science and religion
Intelligent design (teleology)
Natural theology
Darwinism
Natural selection
People
Darwin, Charles Robert
Paley, William
Gray, Asa
Whewell, William
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord
Ruskin, John
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
18th century
17th century
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
England
United States
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