Darwin’s Spectre

By addebook • Jul 2nd, 2008 • Category: Biology

Darwin’s Spectre

Darwin’s Spectre
By Michael R. Rose

Publisher: Princeton University Press
Number Of Pages: 233
Publication Date: 1998-10-26
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0691012172
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780691012179
Binding: Hardcover

“Darwin’s Spectre will be a lightning rod among books on the great naturalist. Rose’s emphatic opinions will ensure that the book will not be ignored. Other trade books have also explored Darwinism and its modern meaning, but Rose’s is unique in its combination of a frankly historical placing of Darwin’s ideas, its consideration of their many ramifications for modern life, and its grand conjectures about the future.”–Steven M. Austad, University of Idaho; author of Why We Age

Extending the human life-span past 120 years. The “green” revolution. Evolution and human psychology. These subjects make today’s newspaper headlines. Yet much of the science underlying these topics stems from a book published nearly 140 years ago–Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Far from an antique idea restricted to the nineteenth century, the theory of evolution is one of the most potent concepts in all of modern science.

In Darwin’s Spectre, Michael Rose provides the general reader with an introduction to the theory of evolution: its beginning with Darwin, its key concepts, and how it may affect us in the future. First comes a brief biographical sketch of Darwin. Next, Rose gives a primer on the three most important concepts in evolutionary theory–variation, selection, and adaptation. With a firm grasp of these concepts, the reader is ready to look at modern applications of evolutionary theory. Discussing agriculture, Rose shows how even before Darwin farmers and ranchers unknowingly experimented with evolution. Medical research, however, has ignored Darwin’s lessons until recently, with potentially grave consequences. Finally, evolution supplies important new vantage points on human nature. If humans weren’t created by deities, then our nature may be determined more by evolution than we have understood. or it may not be. In this question, as in many others, the Darwinian perspective is one of the most important for understanding human affairs in the modern world.

Darwin’s Spectre explains how evolutionary biology has been used to support both valuable applied research, particularly in agriculture, and truly frightening objectives, such as Nazi eugenics. Darwin’s legacy has been a comfort and a scourge. But it has never been irrelevant.

Amazon.com:

“A spectre is haunting the modern world,” writes evolutionary biologist Michael Rose in a sly echo of Karl Marx, “Darwin’s spectre, Darwinism.” Ancient as scientific theories go, Charles Darwin’s 19th-century ideas about speciation, adaptation, and natural selection continue to inform modern science and to shape our understanding of the world; as Rose demonstrates, Darwinism retains its intellectual force today, although it has been put to bad use politically (as, for instance, a justification for racism, the dismantling of welfare, and the imposition of authoritarian social controls). Rose discusses the growth of Darwin’s thought through three major issues: the nature of heredity, the operation of natural selection, and the pattern of evolution. Darwin helped solve a vexing puzzle of his day, namely how different species emerge; he also helped explain why, in an apparent lack of natural economy, there should be so many species of animal and plant life to begin with. For all Darwinism’s intellectual power, Rose notes, most theories of human nature continue to be resolutely non-Darwinian. Rose’s discussion is lucid and accessible to nonspecialists, and it makes for an eminently readable essay in the history of science. –Gregory McNamee

Summary: Solid survey, starts with life of Darwin
Rating: 3

It is really an introduction to the consequences of Darwinian evolutionary biology in the modern world. But to get there the first 1/3 is a rather nice simple biographical sketch of Darwin and his times. One particularly good accent was on the Platonic essentialism that marked much of the historical thinking about biology up to Darwin’s time. As such this part of the book would be a good first read for a high school student on Darwin.

The second half is his desire to convince people that Darwinian thinking is crucial for a good understanding of not just the natural biological world but for greater issues like sociobio to medicine. As such is a good general survey of an extremely polarized subject material without getting bogged down in the debate itself.

Summary: Solid Explanations, Interesting Speculations
Rating: 3

This is an interesting book written for a wide audience. Rose, a distinguished biologist known for his theoretical and experimental work on aging, aims to give a concise overview of Darwinism, a historical background of Darwinism, some insight into the importance of Darwinism for our culture, and some ideas about how Darwinism might help to explain human behavior. He accomplishes all these goals in this relatively brief and well written volume. Though I don’t agree with all of Rose’s conclusions, this is a good introductory book with a good annotated bibliography.

Summary: My Impressions of Darwin’s Spectre:….
Rating: 2

I found the first 3rd of the book very helpfull. I estimate that I was able to understand about 80% of what was written.

I found the second 2/3rds of the book (with the exception of the last two chapters) nearly useless, because I estimate that I was only able to understand approximately 20% of what was written.

The last 2 chapters, I understood, but did not learn much from them.

P.S. I am educated, and have well above average intelligence.

Summary: Darwinism explained for the general public.
Rating: 5

Rose has written a nice, generally nontechnical introduction to Darwinism and its uses (both practical and speculative) for the layman, yet even advanced readers will find some parts of his book provocative.

Summary: Spiritual account of the overwhelming relevance of Darwinism
Rating: 5

Michael R. Rose makes an excellent contribution to the understanding of the overwhelming relevance of Darwinism to the Modern World. The first part of the book allows the unfamiliarized reader to grasp the main building of Darwinism, knowledge that is then masterly canalized to present the importance of the field for applied Science (2nd part). Finally, last but not least, comes the best part of the book, which was seriously lacking in the literature, a personnal, Darwinian view of our Society(ies), with its many intrincacies. Throughout the book, and contrary to the normal, regrettable tendency of Academics, the author does not fear neither spiritual style nor to present many times personnal views, which makes the reading most pleasant and enriching, from the start till the end. It is a major contribution to bring to the ‘Darwinian side’ those that, though intellectually interested, were kept till now apart, due to excessively academic presentations of Darwinism and its contribution to the understanding of the Modern World. It is only regrettable that Rose did not deepen more the third part of the book. More works like this are severely needed.

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