Before and After Darwin

Summary

This is the first of a pair of volumes by Jonathan Hodge, collecting all his most innovative, revisionist and influential papers on Charles Darwin and on the longer run of theories about origins and species from ancient times to the present. The focus in this volume is on the diversity of theories among such pre-Darwinian authors as Lamarck and Whewell, and on developments in the theory of natural selection since Darwin. The papers explore the ontological and cosmogonical contexts for theories about origins and species, while clarifying continuities and discontinuities in thinking, and showing how controversy persists over the old issues about order, chance, necessity and purpose in the living world and the wider universe as a whole.