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In this volume, excerpted from Charles Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy (NewSouth Books, 2013), public educator, author, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, with characteristic clarity and wit, discusses the basic principles of evolution and responds to creationists' standard arguments against evolutionary theory. Dawkins's essay is a transcript of a lecture he delivered at Auburn University in 1996. While en route to Auburn, Professor Dawkins heard about the "Alabama Insert," a disclaimer of evolution by the Alabama State Board of Education pasted inside the cover of biology textbooks. Dawkins set aside his prepared lecture and extemporaneously critiqued the "Insert." Later he gave permission for a transcript of his talk to be used to further the public understanding of evolution.
In this volume, excerpted from Charles Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy (NewSouth Books, 2013), public educator, author, and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, with characteristic clarity and wit, discusses the basic principles of evolution and responds to creationists' standard arguments against evolutionary theory. Dawkins's essay is a transcript of a lecture he delivered at Auburn University in 1996. While en route to Auburn, Professor Dawkins heard about the "Alabama Insert," a disclaimer of evolution by the Alabama State Board of Education pasted inside the cover of biology textbooks. Dawkins set aside his prepared lecture and extemporaneously critiqued the "Insert." Later he gave permission for a transcript of his talk to be used to further the public understanding of evolution.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
Introduction
Introduction
Jay Lamar and James T. Bradley
Humankind is fortunate for the life of Charles Robert Darwin (1809–82). This volume, Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy, commemorates the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the first edition of his most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin changed the world forever with his 1859 publication of that book, whose title was shortened to On the Origin of Species with its sixth edition in 1872. The ideas in On the Origin of Species reordered the biological sciences; spawned new disciplines of inquiry such as evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo); became foundational for modern biomedical research and practice; inspired new literature and literary criticism; were grotesquely misused by 20th-century eugenicists and social Darwinists; traumatized persons with certain theological views; and continue to alter humankind's view of itself and its place in the world.
The collective contributions to the present anthology tell an interdisciplinary story of Charles Darwin the person, Darwin's work and world-altering ideas, and Darwin's legacy. This celebratory volume is the result of a happy and stimulating collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM), the Caroline Marshall Draughn Center for the Arts & Humanities, and the Outreach Committee in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University, a land-grant institution on the eastern plains of Alabama. During the spring of 2009, the collaborators organized and sponsored a semester-long "Darwin Celebration" for the university and the larger community. The celebration included weekly lectures on diverse aspects of Darwin's life, ideas, and legacy, and a birthday party on February 12. The lecture series included 13 speakers from four CLA departments and two COSAM departments. In addition, three world-renowned science/evolution scholars and writers visited campus to lecture and interact with undergraduate students: paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, author and evolutionary biologist Kenneth Miller, and science journalist and author Natalie Angier. Nine speakers and four additional Auburn University scholars contributed essays for this volume. For Darwin's birthday party, Department of Biological Sciences faculty and graduate students baked and gave away more than 800 cupcakes and distributed 2,000 commemorative bookmarks to students walking between classes.
The purpose of Auburn University's Darwin Celebration was to present Darwin's ideas and their impact on diverse disciplines for general audiences in a friendly, clear, accurate, non-proselytizing way. Commemorative bookmarks with a copy of the image of Darwin and the Galapagos finches in the frieze outside the entrance to the Auburn University's Science Center Classroom were distributed to all event attendees.
We note with interest that the centennial celebration of publication of On the Origin of Species occurred in the same year as the famous 1959 Rede Lecture, "The Two Cultures," by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Snow lamented the disconnection between science and the humanities. In fact, he noted the downright hostility that often exists between the two cultures brought on by different professional languages and differing views of the human condition. Snow wrote of the optimism of scientists and contrasted it with literary artists' focus on human tragedy and loneliness. With rare exceptions, little has happened...
About the Author-
Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and was the University of Oxford's Professor for Public Understanding of Science from 1995 until 2008. Dawkins came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, followed by The Extended Phenotype (1982), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (2009). His most recent work is The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True (2011).
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NewSouth Inc.
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