At the Deathbed of Darwinism: A Series of Papers

Dennert, Eberhard, 1861-1942Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.3
Word count
209K words
Chapters
21

Tags

English Originals ReligionPopular Science Science EnlightenmentHumanistic CareWestern ThoughtMoral DilemmaAcademic StudyIntellectual Commentary

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.At the Deathbed of Darwinism: A Series of Papers by Eberhard DennertAuthor: Dennert, Eberhard, 1861-1942,Language: English, Class: QH: Science: Natural history, Release Date: Apr 10, 2007

Editor's review

This book is a collection of essays on Darwinian evolution published by Dennert in the early twentieth century, with an English translation prepared and released by Project Gutenberg. Its value lies not in offering contemporary scientific conclusions but in preserving the scientific discussion and intellectual debate surrounding evolution in a specific historical period, allowing readers to observe how scientific theories were accepted, questioned, and disseminated in social contexts. The essays carry a distinct polemical tone of their era, and their argumentative style differs markedly from today's scientific writing; readers need to distinguish the author's views from content that later research has revised or discarded. As primary material for the history of science and intellectual history, it is suitable for understanding the spread of evolutionary theory and the relationship between science and religion; it is not suitable as popular science for directly learning biology. Read it with a historical eye, focusing on argumentative structure and historical context rather than treating its claims as current scientific consensus.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the introduction and table of contents first to clarify the polemical targets and writing context of each essay.
  2. Read alongside modern evolutionary biology textbooks and mark views in the book that have since been revised.
  3. Take notes on the author's argumentative methods as you read, as material for analysis in the history of science.
  4. Read in sections and write brief summaries after each essay to avoid fatigue from continuous reading.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21

FAQ

Do the views in this book represent modern scientific consensus? No. The book is a polemical text from the early twentieth century, and many of its claims have been revised or refuted by later biological research. Its value lies mainly in the history of science and intellectual history; it should be treated as historical material rather than cited as current scientific conclusions.
Can I understand it without a biology background? You can read it, but it requires some patience. The book involves concepts related to evolutionary theory and its historical context. It is easier to grasp the author's arguments and polemical context if you first learn the basics of Darwinian evolution and the relevant debates of the early twentieth century.
Is this book suitable as popular science reading for students? It is not very suitable as an introductory popular science text. The book is strongly polemical and clearly limited by its era, which can easily confuse beginners about the difference between historical views and modern scientific conclusions. If used for teaching, it should be discussed as history-of-science material under a teacher's guidance and read alongside authoritative textbooks.

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About the author

Dennert, Eberhard, 1861-1942 Author · German · 1861–1942

Eberhard Dennert (1861–1942) was a German physician and naturalist. Throughout his life he was concerned with the relationship between the natural sciences and faith, and he wrote to criticize Darwinism and took part in the related debates. His representative work, At the Deathbed of Darwinism: A Series of Papers, presents his doubts about Darwinian theory in the form of a series of essays; the writing has a strongly polemical tone and addresses readers concerned with the tension between evolutionary theory and religious belief. Public information about his life and academic career is limited, and the library holds only one of his works, so his position and style are known today mainly through this polemical collection.