The Evolution Wars: A Guide to the Debates

The Evolution Wars draws on history, science, and philosophy to examine the development of evolutionary thought through the past two and a half centuries. It focuses on the debates that have engaged, divided, and ultimately provoked scientists to ponder the origins of life--including humankind--paying regard to the nineteenth-century clash over the nature of classification and debates about the fossil record, genetics, and human nature. Much attention is paid to external factors and they underlying motives of scientists. In these pages you will meet Charles Darwin's ebullient grandfather Erasmus, the contentious Frenchmen Georges Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy Sainte Hillaire, new creationist Phillip Johnson, the brilliant J.B.S. Haldane, outspoken Richard Dawkins, and many other stars of the debates. The Evolution Wars is intellectually rewarding not only for evolutionists but also for opponents of evolution theory, and for anyone who wants to see how one of the great ideas of Western civilization resonates through time, both within and beyond the scientific community. Michael Ruse is the Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He is the author of many books including The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw; Monad to Man: The Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology; and Can a Darwinian Be a Christian?: The Relationship Between Science and Religion.