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Revisiting the 'Origin of Species' focuses on Darwin as theorizing on the origin of variations; showing that Darwin himself was never a pan-selectionist (in contrast to some of his followers) but was concerned with "other means of modification" (which makes him an evolutionary pluralist).
List of contents
Introduction. The meanings of "Darwinism"
Part I. Darwin-the-Selectionist and beyond
Chapter 1. A labyrinthine
OriginChapter 2. Diffracting Darwin's title- The prism of translations
Chapter 3. "One long argument"? Darwin-the-Selectionist
Part II. Darwin-the-Variationist
Chapter 4. Darwin-the-Epicurean. Chance and laws of variation.
Chapter 5. Darwin-the-Teleologist. Are all variations useful?
Chapter 6. Darwin-the-Lamarckian and the Other "Means of Modification"
Part III. Radical origins: Darwin-the-Cosmologist
Chapter 7. "Mystery of mysteries": the temptation of origin
Chapter 8. "Originally Breathed": or, on the Origin of Life
Chapter 9. "Light will be thrown": or, on the Origin of Mankind
Chapter 10. Darwin-the-Darwinist, Or the Quest for Systematic Coherency
Conclusion. Darwinisms, or Darwin Diffracted
About the author
Thierry Hoquet is Professor of Philosophy of Science in the Department of Philosophy at Paris Nanterre University, France.
Summary
Revisiting the 'Origin of Species' focuses on Darwin as theorizing on the origin of variations; showing that Darwin himself was never a pan-selectionist (in contrast to some of his followers) but was concerned with "other means of modification" (which makes him an evolutionary pluralist).
Additional text
"Like many other classics, The Origin of Species is widely known and referenced, yet rarely actually read. Revisiting the Origin of Species asks us what we should make of this celebrated work in view of the ways it was initially read. This book should encourage uninitiated students and scholars alike to do as its title suggests, functioning as both exhortation and guide The focus of this volume is on Darwin-the-text rather than Darwin-the-man, with sparing use of the industrial-scale scholarship that sprang up in his name. The historicism has a narrow and highly disciplined remit; it is a snapshot in the history of ideas. Hoquet’s examination is almost entirely confined to the debates occurring in the period spanning the Origin’s first appearance in 1859 through to the sixth and last edition of 1872, and its early translations. The aim is to de-synthesize understandings of Darwin’s text, to resist the way twentieth-century developments have reinterpreted it according to what Darwin really meant or should have meant. Hoquet wants to recapture the contention the Origin first provoked."
Roderick David Buchanan, 2019
