Darwin’s Methodological Evolution

Journal of the History of Biology 38 (1):85-99 (2005)
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Abstract

A necessary condition for having a revolution named after you is that you are an innovator in your field. I argue that if Charles Darwin meets this condition, it is as a philosopher and methodologist. In 1991, I made the case for Darwin's innovative use of "thought experiment" in the "Origin." Here I place this innovative practice in the context of Darwin's methodological commitments, trace its origins back into Darwin's notebooks, and pursue Darwin's suggestion that it owes its inspiration to Charles Lyell.

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10.1007/s10739-004-6511-4

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James G. Lennox
University of Pittsburgh

Citations of this work

Sir John F. W. Herschel and Charles Darwin: Nineteenth-Century Science and Its Methodology.Charles H. Pence - 2018 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 8 (1):108-140.
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Gemmules and Elements: On Darwin’s and Mendel’s Concepts and Methods in Heredity.Ute Deichmann - 2010 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 41 (1):85-112.
Darwin’s laws.Chris Haufe - 2012 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43 (1):269-280.

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References found in this work

The Triumph of the Darwinian Method.Michael T. Ghiselin - 1973 - Philosophy of Science 40 (3):466-467.
Principles of Geology.Charles Lyell & G. L. Herrier Davies - 1994 - Annals of Science 51 (1):100.
The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth.Peter J. Bowler - 1990 - Journal of the History of Biology 23 (3):529-531.

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