Ulett, Mark A. (Author)
Throughout the history of evolutionary theory a number of scientists have argued that evolution proceeds along a limited number of definite trajectories, a concept and group of theories known as orthogenesis. Beginning in the 1880s, influential evolutionists including Theodor Eimer, Edward Drinker Cope, and Leo Berg argued that a fully causal explanation of evolution must take into account the origin and nature of variation, an idea that implied orthogenesis in their views. This paper argues that these orthogenesis developed theories that were more than highly technical and theoretically dubious hypotheses accessible only to elite specialists, as certain histories of these ideas might suggest. Some orthogenesists made their case to a non-specialist audience to gain support for their ideas in the face of widespread controversy over evolutionary theory. Through a case study analysis of three major books by Eimer, Cope, and Berg, this paper contends that they sought to re-orient the central tenets of the science of evolution to include the causal impact of variation on evolutionary outcomes. These orthogenesists developed novel and synthetic evolutionary theories in a publishing platform suited for non-specialist audiences in an effort to impact the debates over evolutionary causation prevalent in the late-19th and early 20th centuries.
...MoreArticle 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).
Thesis
Ulett, Mark Andrew;
(2014)
Definitely Directed Evolution (1890--1926): The Importance of Variation in Major Evolutionary Works by Theodor Eimer, Edward Drinker Cope, and Leo Berg
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Gliboff, Sander;
(2011)
The Golden Age of Lamarckism, 1866--1926
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Popov, Igor;
(2008)
Orthogenesis versus Darwinism: The Russian Case
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Gabriele Ferrari;
(2023)
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James R. Jackson;
Aleta Quinn;
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Xiaobo Yu;
(2017)
Chinese paleontology and the reception of Darwinism in early twentieth century
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Levit, Georgy S.;
Olsson, Lennart;
(2006)
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Johnson, Rebecca L.;
(2013)
Battle of the Dinosaur Bones: Othniel Charles Marsh vs. Edward Drinker Cope
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Bowler, Peter J.;
(1979)
Theodor Eimer and orthogenesis: Evolution by “definitely directed variation”
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John Beatty;
(2019)
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Cooke, Bill;
(2010)
Joseph McCabe: A Forgotten Early Populariser of Science and Defender of Evolution
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Schuller, Kyla;
(2012)
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Kate MacCord;
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Gundlach, Bradley J.;
(2013)
Process and Providence: The Evolution Question at Princeton, 1845-1929
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(2015)
Darwin's Footprint: Cultural Perspectives on Evolution in Greece (1880--1930s)
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(1977)
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Book
Stuart Mathieson;
(2020)
Evangelicals and the Philosophy of Science: The Victoria Institute, 1865-1939
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Thesis
Marlena Briane Cameron;
(2017)
Fossil Excavation, Museums, and Wyoming: American Paleontology, 1870-1915
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