Smith, Roger C. (Author)
From the late nineteenth century onwards religion gave way to science as the dominant force in society. This led to a questioning of the principle of free will—if the workings of the human mind could be reduced to purely physiological explanations, then what place was there for human agency and self-improvement? Smith takes an in-depth look at the problem of free will through the prism of different disciplines. Physiology, psychology, philosophy, evolutionary theory, ethics, history and sociology all played a part in the debates that took place. His subtly nuanced navigation through these arguments has much to contribute to our understanding of Victorian and Edwardian science and culture, as well as having relevance to current debates on the role of genes in determining behaviour.
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Book
Smith, Roger;
(2013)
Free Will and the Human Sciences in Britain, 1870--1910
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Book
David Hutchings;
James C. Ungureanu;
(2021)
Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World
(/isis/citation/CBB939167406/)
Article
Stanley, Matthew;
(2008)
The Pointsman: Maxwell's Demon, Victorian Free Will, and the Boundaries of Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001030604/)
Chapter
Forrester, John;
(2012)
The English Freud: W. H. R. Rivers, Dreaming, and the Early Twentieth-Century Human Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001201490/)
Book
Lightman, Bernard;
Dawson, Gowan;
(2014)
Victorian Scientific Naturalism: Community, Identity, Continuity
(/isis/citation/CBB001422041/)
Article
Krasnodębski, Marcin;
(2014)
Constructing Creationists: French and British Narratives and Policies in the Wake of the Resurgence of Anti-Evolution Movements
(/isis/citation/CBB001421064/)
Article
Thomas Michael Mueller;
(2015)
The Boussinesq Debate: Reversibility, Instability, and Free Will
(/isis/citation/CBB054306641/)
Book
Bowler, Peter J.;
(2001)
Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB000100078/)
Article
Fisher, Nick;
(2015)
The Natural Theology of Victorian Industry
(/isis/citation/CBB001552546/)
Article
Peplow, Mark;
(2013)
History of Science: Elements of Romanticism
(/isis/citation/CBB001320443/)
Chapter
White, Paul;
(2014)
The Conduct of Belief: Agnosticism, the Metaphysical Society, and the Formation of Intellectual Communities
(/isis/citation/CBB001422052/)
Article
Bellon, Richard;
(2012)
The Moral Dignity of Inductive Method and the Reconciliation of Science and Faith in Adam Sedgwick's Discourse
(/isis/citation/CBB001250445/)
Book
Hesketh, Ian;
(2009)
Of Apes and Ancestors: Evolution, Christianity and The Oxford Debate
(/isis/citation/CBB000952766/)
Article
Mitchell, Benjamin David;
(2014)
Capturing the Will: Imposture, Delusion, and Exposure in Alfred Russel Wallace's Defence of Spirit Photography
(/isis/citation/CBB001420117/)
Book
Zarimis, Maria;
(2015)
Darwin's Footprint: Cultural Perspectives on Evolution in Greece (1880--1930s)
(/isis/citation/CBB001551568/)
Book
Stuart Mathieson;
(2020)
Evangelicals and the Philosophy of Science: The Victoria Institute, 1865-1939
(/isis/citation/CBB676582188/)
Article
Finnegan, Diarmid A.;
Wright, Jonathan Jeffrey;
(2015)
Catholics, Science and Civic Culture in Victorian Belfast
(/isis/citation/CBB001551285/)
Article
Ian Hesketh;
(2018)
John Robert Seeley, Natural Religion, and the Victorian Conflict between Science and Religion
(/isis/citation/CBB397483828/)
Article
Bellon, Richard;
(2014)
There Is Grandeur in This View of Newton: Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Victorian Conceptions of Scientific Virtue
(/isis/citation/CBB001500029/)
Article
Stolte, Tyson;
(2014)
“And Graves Give up Their Dead”: The Old Curiosity Shop, Victorian Psychology, and the Nature of the Future Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001201805/)
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