Article ID: CBB001500023

Was There a Darwinian Revolution? Yes, No, and Maybe! (2014)

unapi

Ruse, Michael (Author)


Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
Volume: 38, no. 3-4
Issue: 3 - 4
Pages: 159-168


Publication Date: 2014
Edition Details: Part of the Special issue on Charles Darwin and Scientific Revolutions.
Language: English

Was there a Darwinian Revolution and was it but part of the Scientific Revolution? Before Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962, most people thought that there was a Darwinian Revolution, that it was in some sense connected to the Scientific Revolution, but that neither question nor answer was terribly interesting. Then revolutions in science became a matter of intense debate, not so much about their very existence but about their nature. Was there a switch in world-views? Did the facts change? What was the importance of social groups? And so forth. Recently however some students of the history of science have started to argue that the very questions are misconceived and that there cannot have been a Darwinian Revolution and its relationship to the Scientific Revolution is imaginary because there are no such revolutions in science! This paper takes a sympathetic look at these issues, concluding that there is still life in the revolution-in-science issue, that Kuhn's book was seminal and still has things of importance to say, but that matters are more complex and more interesting than we thought back then.

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Article Delisle, Richard G. (2014) Can a Revolution Hide Another One? Charles Darwin and the Scientific Revolution. Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (pp. 157-158). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001500023/

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Authors & Contributors
Borg, George
Inkpen, S. Andrew
Yohe, James Dale
Stöltzner, Michael
Sankey, Howard
Roth, Paul A.
Concepts
Revolutions in science
Philosophy of science
Historiography
History of science, as a discipline
History of philosophy of science
Science and culture
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
Medieval
21st century
Places
United States
Latin America
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