"Evolution, Old & New" by Samuel Butler is a critical study of evolutionary ideas from the 1700s and 1800s. It looks closely at how thinkers like Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Lamarck, and Charles Darwin understood evolution, teleology, and the reasons behind the bodies of living things. Butler wants to show that there is a plan and goal in life's evolution, instead of just thinking it's random or mechanical. He begins by thinking about whether animals and plants show design or purpose, going against the idea that evolution happens by chance or only due to natural selection, wanting to show how historical ideas about purpose can still matter in today's evolutionary debates.
Evolution, Old & New Or, the Theories of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, as compared with that of Charles Darwin
By Samuel Butler
Journey through history to discover a forgotten debate about the roles of purpose and design, challenging the modern understanding of evolution itself.
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2007-11-09
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About the AuthorSamuel Butler was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872) and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh. Both novels have remained in print since their initial publication. In other studies he examined Christian orthodoxy, evolutionary thought, and Italian art, and made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey that are still consulted.
Samuel Butler was an English novelist and critic, best known for the satirical utopian novel Erewhon (1872) and the semi-autobiographical novel The Way of All Flesh. Both novels have remained in print since their initial publication. In other studies he examined Christian orthodoxy, evolutionary thought, and Italian art, and made prose translations of the Iliad and Odyssey that are still consulted.
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