Images of the Economy of Nature, 1650-1930: From Nature's War to Darwin's Struggle for Life by Antonello La Vergata
Written by a historian, this book really gives new, multidisciplinary perspectives on the Darwinian Revolution.
Antonello La Vergata was full professor of the History of Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia until his retirement in 2022. He has also been visiting professor of the History of Science at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, and at the Stanford University Program in Florence. He was awarded the Prix Marc-Auguste Pictet by the Societe de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Geneve (1995), and the Giuseppe Montalenti Medal by the Department of Evolutionary Biology Charles Darwin, at the University of Rome (2014). He is a member of the editorial board of various scientific/historical journals, and has published over 250 articles and six books. His research areas include: the history of evolution theories; relations between the life sciences, philosophy and the social sciences; war; images of nature and man's place in nature; science and literature.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Abundance and Variety
2.1 Natural theology
2.2 Teleology2.3 Evil
2.4 The Economy of Nature
2.5 Abundance
2.6 Variety2.7 Contrivances
2.8 Evil Justified
2.9 The Usefulness of Destruction
2.10 Checks to Overmultiplication2.11 Linnaeus: Order Through Destruction
2.12 Buffon: Balances and Counterbalances in a Newtonian Universe
2.13 A Pious Pharmacien's Hymn to Nature
2.14 Competition Among Sperm Worms
2.15 Discord and Compensation
2.16 Consolation in the Slaughterhouse
2.17 Concluding Remarks
NotesReferences
3. Evil in Nature
3.1 You Shout 'All Is well' in a Lamenting Voice3.2 A Mixture of Good and Evil
3.3 Truly Philosophical and Christian Consolations
3.4 Tout est bien pour le tout
3.5 Compensation, and Some of its Uses
3.6 Compensation and Perversion
3.7 Pessimism as an Antidote to Misanthropy, or, Nature as a Stepmother3.8 Blind Will
Notes
References
4. Carnivores, Extinctions, and the Beast
4.1 Predators
4.2 The Death of Species
4.3 Death and Happiness4.4 Carnivores and Evil
4.5 Geology and Evil
4.6 Sin Securalised, or the Beast Within...
4.7 ... and the Beast Without4.8 Conclusion
Notes
References
5. Struggle for Life vs Evolution
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Transformation and Order
5.3 Competing for Space
5.4 Equilibrium in the Number of Species, how Preserved
5.5 Where Is the Balance?
5.6 Naval Timber and Colonial Expansion
5.7 The Conservative Aspect of the Struggle for Existence
5.8 Louis Agassiz's Version of Design
5.9 Hardship and Luxuriance
5.10 Struggle in a Southern Hemisphere Perspective
5.11 Creation by Law and Type Forms 5.12 ConclusionNotes
References
6. The Struggle for Existence, or, What's in a Metaphor?
6.1. A Multi-Metaphor, or Struggle Within Struggle
6.2. A Look at Darwin's Files6.3 Why Metaphors?
6.4 Constructing a Metaphor
6.5 Death of Species and Death of Tribes
6.6 The War of Organic Beings6.7 Darwin and Malthus
6.8 Energy and Improvement
6.9 The Last Natural Theologian? Or, Darwin on Good and Evil
6.10 Conclusion
Notes
References
7. New Places in the Economy of Nature
7.1 Darwin the Humboldtian7.2 Measuring and Contemplating
7.3 Botanical Arithmetic
7.4 Divergence
7.5 Advantages of Diversity
7.6 Spontaneous Variability
7.7 An Inextricable Net-Work of Relations
7.8 The Relativity of Adaptation
7.9 Place in the Economy of Nature
7.10 Can the Quantity of Life Increase Indefinitely?
7.11 Concluding Remarks
NotesReferences
8. Survival of the Fittest and Cosmical Evolution
8.1 Change Through Struggle and Exertion8.2 Nothing in Nature that Is Not Useful
8.3 A Philosopher for all Seasons
8.4 Human Nature
8.5 Progress and Adaptation
8.6 The Stern Discipline of Nature 8.7 The Physical Principles of Evolution8.8 A Digression: Struggle for Life Among Atoms
8.9 Direct and Indirect Equilibration
8.10 Concluding Remarks
NotesReferences
9. Struggles for Existence
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Is There a Struggle for Existence as Darwin Describes It? 9.3 Yes, There Is a Struggle, but...9.4 Mechanism and Teleology
9.5 Struggle Taken Literally
9.6 Warlike Images
9.7 Different Moral Messages
9.8 Mutual Aid vs Struggle
9.9 The Struggle Against Struggle and the Association for the Struggle9.10 Strife, Endeavour, and Effort
9.11 Ascent Through Struggle
9.12. Competition, Progress, and Compensation
9.13 Endeavour after Well-being9.14 Translating, Disentangling, Subdividing, Qualifying, and Going Deeper
9.15 Struggle Without and Struggle Within
9.16 Selections
9.17 From Bloody Struggle to the Struggle of Ideas
9.18 Concluding RemarksNotes
References
10. Another Now, or a Vindication of a Historical History of Science 10.1. Struggle Discharged
10.2 Revolution or Eclipse?
10.3 Has Moralizing About Nature Ceased?
Notes
References