{"id":5473,"date":"2020-10-25T23:52:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/st112a-fall20\/?p=5473"},"modified":"2020-10-25T23:52:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T03:52:48","slug":"the-darwinian-revolution-a-product-of-two-cultures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/st112a-fall20\/2020\/10\/25\/the-darwinian-revolution-a-product-of-two-cultures\/","title":{"rendered":"The Darwinian Revolution: A Product of Two Cultures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janet Browne\u2019s The Origin of Species: A Biography <\/em>dives into the biography of Charles Darwin and the story behind his writing of the groundbreaking book The Origin of Species. <\/em>Darwin is credited with providing a foundation stone for the modern world. From the get-go, Browne declares that Darwin\u2019s work in The Origin of Species <\/em>was acknowledged as \u201can outstanding contribution to the intellectual landscape, broad in scope, full of insight and packed with evidence to support his suggestions.\u201d Darwin\u2019s writings challenged everything that had previously been thought about living beings and became a leading factor in the transformations of intellectual, social and religious thought that occurred during the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

Yet while Darwin is cited as one of the most influential scientists of all time, and Origin of Species<\/em>, is acknowledged as one of the greatest scientific books ever written \u2013 Darwin\u2019s work reflects a unique, nearly \u201cunscientific\u201d approach to discovery. In The Origin of Species: A Biography <\/em>Browne states:<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Origin of Species] does not fit the usual stereotype of what we nowadays expect science\u00a0to be. It is wonderfully personal in style. It has no graphs or maths, no reference to white-coated figures in a laboratory, no specialized language\u2026 It sold out to the book trade on publication day and the arguments that it ignited spread like wildfire in the public domain, becoming the first truly international scientific debate in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Browne traces back the personal and professional life of Darwin which led him to the writing of The Origin of Species, <\/em>it becomes clear how Darwin\u2019s private and professional path shaped his unique, interdisciplinary perspective, which I would argue was fundamental to his scientific theories.<\/em> Darwin\u2019s scientific breakthrough is a testament to C.P Snows\u2019 argument in his influential Two Cultures <\/em>essay: <\/em>that the sharp line that divides the two areas of intellectual activity is dangerous, and the bridging of the two \u201ccultures\u201d of science and the humanities is fundamental to scientific advances.<\/p>\n

Darwin\u2019s personal life and professional journey blended both the \u201csciences\u201d and the \u201carts and humanities.\u201d Perhaps this is why Darwin, unlike a \u201cstereotypical\u201d scientist, hated the cut and thrust of public disagreement (even while accepting that science generally progresses through debate). Darwin started his higher educational journey training Edenborough Medical School, where he decided he could not be a doctor. Next, in pursuit of a entering the Clergy, Darwin attended Christ’s College, Cambridge, to read for an ‘ordinary’ degree. The medical context at Edinburgh to the theological environment at Cambridge was starkly different, and Darwin\u2019s time at both Universities have been credited as extremely influential in his thinking by Historians of Science. Browne sums this up by stating that \u201cDarwin’s later achievements, in fact, can conveniently be characterized as a mix of Edinburgh and Cambridge ideas – the two traditions sparking insights off each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

This intertwining of these Two Cultures <\/em>is visible in the vocabulary used throughout his book. Browne states that \u201cthe language he had to hand was the language of Milton and Shakespeare, steeped in teleology and purpose, not the objective, value- free terminology sought by science.\u201d While this did cause some confusion within the scientific community (for example entanglement occurred when he used the word ‘adaptation’, which hinted at a form of purposeful strategy in animals and plants \u2013 the opposite of what he meant), his rhetoric not proves that Darwin, a \u201cscientist\u201d, embodied an interdisciplinary perspective which shaped his perspective.<\/p>\n

Further, Darwin\u2019s use of this perspective was crucial in his theory. Darwin\u2019s ability to visualize the evolution of life in his characterization of the history of living beings as a tree according \u201cbecame almost synonymous with understanding it.\u201d The only diagram in his book, a depiction of his \u201cTree of Life,\u201d was what he declared \u201can odd-looking affair but indispensable to show the nature of the very complex affinities of past and present animals.\u201d Darwin\u2019s abundant creativity, use of metaphors, and Shakespearean rhetoric, which could be deemed \u201cunscientific,\u201d was actually critical in the development of his theory and his perhaps \u201cunscientific\u201d metaphor became one of his most sustaining ideas.<\/p>\n

Darwin, despite being one of the most famous \u201cscientists\u201d of all time, is not what Snow would classify as a stereotypical \u201cscientist.\u201d Darwin\u2019s groundbreaking discoveries in The Origin of Species <\/em>which are the product of his interdisciplinary understanding is a testament to Snow\u2019s argument that bridging of the \u201ctwo cultures\u201d is critical for future scientific breakthroughs.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Snow, C. P., and Stefan Collini. The Two Cultures<\/i>. Cambridge University Press, 1993.<\/p>\n

Browne, E. J. Darwin’s Origin of Species: a Biography<\/i>. Read How You Want, 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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