Understanding Evolution in Darwin's "Origin"

This book aims to encourage the reading of "On the Origin of Species" and to include it in the teaching of evolution. With a comprehensive overview of the development of Darwin's theory, the volume provides relevant aspects of Darwin's life and work in connection with the broader context of his time. The historical and philosophical analysis, mirrored in the socio-cultural scope, enables the diachronic reading of the text. It is built on various sources of historians and philosophers of science and sheds fresh light on them. Its uniqueness is the broad structure that covers four parts: the pre-Darwinian concepts of species changes; some key elements of Darwin's pursuit of the causes of evolution, from his voyage on Beagle to the publication of his groundbreaking work; chapter-by-chapter analysis of the "Origin"; and subsequent developments in evolutionary thought. This book is of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, scholars in history, philosophy, and sociology of science and science education, as well as the general public.

Uses Darwin's book as a case study to foster and develop knowledge of the history of biology Develops grounded conceptions on the nature of science Teaches a functional, working knowledge about the concept of natural selection

Auteur
Prestes graduated in Biological Sciences at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (1983). She worked in marine biology research and as a high school biology teacher, mainly in public schools. She raised her first child during the Specialization in History of Science and Epistemology at the State University of Campinas (1992) and the Master's in Environmental Science at the University of São Paulo (1997). She did her PhD at the Faculty of Education at the University of São Paulo (2003), with a sandwich Doctorate (CNPq 2002) at the Sphere-REHSEIS at the University of Paris 7 and with the birth of her second child. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology of the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo, where she coordinates the Laboratory of History of Biology and Teaching (LaHBE). She is a former president of the Brazilian Association of Philosophy and History of Biology (ABFHiB) and current editor of the Brazilian journal Filosofia e História da Biologia. Her research focuses on the generation of living beings, especially the modes of observation and experiments in the 17th and 18th centuries. Currently, she is developing studies on Darwin's and Aristotle's works.

Contenu
Part I. Learning and Practicing Natural Philosophy in a World with Changing Species Ideas.- Part II. Elaborating a Theory of Species Transmutation.- Part IIPreface: From Biology to Darwin.- Acknowledgements.- Introduction: Why Learn Evolution from Darwin.- PART I Transformation of Species, from the beginning.- Debates About Life's Origin and Adaptive Powers in the Early Nineteenth-Century.- The Darwinian not Too Strictly Balanced Arrangement Between Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.- 04 An Amazing Journey: Darwin and the Fuegians.- Part II. Constructing a Theory.- Darwin's First Writings: From the Beagle Voyage to his Transmutation Notebooks (1837-1839) and Essay (1844).- The Development of Darwin's Theory: From Natural Theology to Natural Selection.- "Great as immensity, deep as eternity:" What Could the Grandeur of Life Say About God's Existence, according to Darwin?.- Mr. Darwin's Beloved Barnacles: Using Cirripedes to Understand Evolution in Origin of Species.- Wallace, Darwin, and the Relationship Between Species and Varieties (1858).- There Have Been Few Such Naturalists Before, But Still...: Darwin's Public Account of Predecessors.- You Too Can Find Grandeur in this View of Life: A Linguistic Remedy for Resisting the Desire to Abandon Darwin's Origin of Species.- PART III Spreading the New Theory to the World.- How Breeders Work Their Magic.- Darwin's Ideas on Variation Under the Lens of Current Evolutionary Genetics.- The Two Faces of Natural Selection.- The Newton of the Blade of Grass.- How "Random" is Evolutionary Change?.- The Initial Difficulties of Darwin's Theory.- Darwin and the Instinct: Why Study Collective Behaviors Performed Without Knowledge of its Purposes?.- Darwin for and Against Hybridism (OE08 Hybridism).- From Old Objections to Novel Explanations: Darwin on the Fossil Record.- "Seed! Seed! Seed!": Geographical Distribution in On the Origin of Species.- The Meaning of Classification, Morphology, Embryology, and Rudimentary Organs to the Theory of Descent with Modifications.- 23 The Good Old Habit of Summarizing the Main Ideas.- Part IV. Epilogue: What Came Next was Extraordinary.- 24 Continuities and Ruptures: Comparing Darwin's On the Origin of Species and the Modern Synthesis.- 25 From the Modern Synthesis to the Other (Extended, Super, Postmodern) Syntheses.I. Launching a Theory into the World.- Part IV. Epilogue: What Next?.