IsisCB Explore

Book ID: CBB728787091

Free Will and the Human Sciences in Britain, 1870-1910 (2013)

Smith, Roger C. (Author)

University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date: 2013
Language: English

ISBN: 9780822944928

Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: 288

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

Google Books

Human behavior Controversies and disputes Human sciences Science and culture Free will and determinism Science and religion 20th century, early 19th century Great Britain

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.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB728787091

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Smith, Roger; (2013)
Free Will and the Human Sciences in Britain, 1870--1910 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001420025/)

Chapter Forrester, John; (2012)
The English Freud: W. H. R. Rivers, Dreaming, and the Early Twentieth-Century Human Sciences (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201490/)

Book David Hutchings; James C. Ungureanu; (2021)
Of Popes and Unicorns: Science, Christianity, and How the Conflict Thesis Fooled the World (/p/isis/citation/CBB939167406/)

Article Stanley, Matthew; (2008)
The Pointsman: Maxwell's Demon, Victorian Free Will, and the Boundaries of Science (/p/isis/citation/CBB001030604/)

Article Thomas Michael Mueller; (2015)
The Boussinesq Debate: Reversibility, Instability, and Free Will (/p/isis/citation/CBB054306641/)

Article Krasnodębski, Marcin; (2014)
Constructing Creationists: French and British Narratives and Policies in the Wake of the Resurgence of Anti-Evolution Movements (/p/isis/citation/CBB001421064/)

Book Lightman, Bernard; Dawson, Gowan; (2014)
Victorian Scientific Naturalism: Community, Identity, Continuity (/p/isis/citation/CBB001422041/)

Book Bowler, Peter J.; (2001)
Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain (/p/isis/citation/CBB000100078/)

Essay Review Seth, Suman; (2013)
Forman at Forty: New Perspectives on “Weimar Culture and Quantum Mechanics” (/p/isis/citation/CBB001500260/)

Book Hesketh, Ian; (2009)
Of Apes and Ancestors: Evolution, Christianity and The Oxford Debate (/p/isis/citation/CBB000952766/)

Article Bellon, Richard; (2012)
The Moral Dignity of Inductive Method and the Reconciliation of Science and Faith in Adam Sedgwick's Discourse (/p/isis/citation/CBB001250445/)

Article Mitchell, Benjamin David; (2014)
Capturing the Will: Imposture, Delusion, and Exposure in Alfred Russel Wallace's Defence of Spirit Photography (/p/isis/citation/CBB001420117/)

Chapter White, Paul; (2014)
The Conduct of Belief: Agnosticism, the Metaphysical Society, and the Formation of Intellectual Communities (/p/isis/citation/CBB001422052/)

Article Noguera-Solano, Ricardo; (2013)
The Metaphor of the Architect in Darwin: Chance and Free Will (/p/isis/citation/CBB001201404/)

Article Strien, Marij van; (2015)
Vital Instability: Life and Free Will in Physics and Physiology, 1860--1880 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551176/)

Book Zarimis, Maria; (2015)
Darwin's Footprint: Cultural Perspectives on Evolution in Greece (1880--1930s) (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551568/)

Article Nicholas Campion; (2018)
Astronomy, Ethics and the Planets (/p/isis/citation/CBB071336809/)

Article Fisher, Nick; (2015)
The Natural Theology of Victorian Industry (/p/isis/citation/CBB001552546/)

Article Finnegan, Diarmid A.; Wright, Jonathan Jeffrey; (2015)
Catholics, Science and Civic Culture in Victorian Belfast (/p/isis/citation/CBB001551285/)

Article Bellon, Richard; (2014)
There Is Grandeur in This View of Newton: Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton and Victorian Conceptions of Scientific Virtue (/p/isis/citation/CBB001500029/)