January 14, 2008
Now that I'm off the below-mentioned committee, it's great to have all parameters removed from my reading list. After randomly choosing two books with related titles and themes to listen to on my commute, I've decided to pick up the string and follow it. I just finished Darwin's Radio by Greg Bear (good, not great... ending was disappointing, I guessed the mutation, and the sex scenes were awful), and just started The Darwin Conspiracy by John Darnton. Now I've pulled down the bio Darwin: a life in science by White and Gribbin, and will actually follow all of this up with The Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle. Oh, and I may even re-read Darwin's Shooter, which was just re-published by PGW.
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6 comments:
Yep, Darwin's radio was a disappointment - good idea written poorly. What a lot of great reading you have to come.
By far the best biography of Darwin I've read is by Adrian Desmond and James Moore. It's called Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. I'm even teaching from it at the moment. Darwin has an "industry", amongst those who do philosophy of science--I am teaching "Reason and Revolution in Science", and dealing with both the Copernican and Darwinian Revolutions.
Seems like you have a bunch of Darwin in front of you, already. Allow me to suggest "Huxley", also by Adrian Desmond. It picks up on the generation that grabbed ahold of Darwin with both hands and their teeth. Huxley was also an impressive guy. Darwin? Kind of ... wasn't. Hypochondriacal Momma's boy!
Having said that, the freakin' idiots at the bookstore (not general books! not general books!) tell me I can't use it 'cause it's out of print. Which clearly means that they're getting ready to add a coupla things, and put another edition out. I hate those guys!
That being said ... if you were gonna teach a philosophy of science course about Darwin (anyone?), which book would you use?
pax egredior
Well, you could always cut out the bookstore completely and use something that is in the public domain: see here.. Another option is to just use the book you want and make your students find it online. There are at least 20 copies currently listed on amazon...
Yeah, I'm going with chapters of "Origin". I thought about the Cambridge Companion (I love those things; a bright reader can roll through one and have a competent conversation with anyone in the world about its subject), but I'm not sure my students have the intellectual background to "get it."
Then again ... I'd get a free one!
I see you've gone "green."
Not impressive how? 150 years later people are still freaking out... how much more impressive can you be? My best book is Darwin's Finches. The guy doesn't matter... the ideas do!
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