About our knowledge of the causes of phenomena in organic nature

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Title page of the original English edition from 1863.

About our knowledge of the causes of phenomena in organic nature (English original title: On Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature ) was a six-part lecture series that Thomas Henry Huxley gave at the end of 1862 at the Geological Museum on London's Jermyn Street , to popularize the ideas of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species , published in late 1859 . The lectures, initially published individually as booklets, were published in book form in 1863 and translated into German by Carl Vogt in 1865 .

History of origin

Since late July 1854, Thomas Henry Huxley was Professor of Natural History and Paleontology at the Royal School of Mines . At the school founded by Henry Thomas de la Bèche in 1851 , lectures for the workers ("working class lectures") were held regularly . In his six winter lectures in 1862, Huxley focused on The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, published in late 1859 .

The lectures were at the Geological Museum in London's Jermyn Street held and began on November 10, 1862. Huxley gave the London publisher Robert Hardwicke , the lectures by J. Aldous Mays (1822-1875) permission mitstenografieren to leave. After the lectures, the notes were sold as booklets at a price of four pence .

Karl Marx and Wilhelm Liebknecht were among the audience .

content

The six lectures had the following titles:

  1. Present state of organic nature
  2. Former state of organic nature
  3. About the method by which the cause of the present and former conditions of organic nature can be discovered. About the origin of living beings
  4. The reproduction of living beings, hereditary lore and deviation
  5. The living conditions relating to the reproduction of living beings
  6. Critical examination of the basic idea put forward in H. Darwin's work: "On the Origin of Species" in relation to the complete theory of the causes of phenomena in organic nature

reception

The lecture notes were an unexpected sales success and were highly valued by workers and professionals alike. After the booklets were brought out in book form at the beginning of 1863 under the title On Our Knowledge of the Causes of the Phenomena of Organic Nature , Huxley considered whether he should revise, expand and republish the notes with illustrations. Charles Lyell supported his idea. However, it did not come to fruition.

On December 2, 1862, Huxley sent the first three lecture notes to Darwin. Darwin read the booklet with "interest". After receiving booklets four and five, however, he reacted more enthusiastically: "They are just perfect."

In 1865 the work was translated into German by Carl Vogt and was given the title About Our Knowledge of the Causes of Phenomena in Organic Nature .

proof

literature

  • Adrian Desmond: Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest . Perseus Books, 1999, ISBN 0-7382-0140-5 .
  • Leonard Huxley (Ed.): Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley . 3 volumes. 2nd Edition. Macmillan and Co., London 1908.
  • Human Skeletons in Geological Closets. In: William Irvine: Apes, Angels and Victorians: The Story of Darwin, Huxley, and Evolution . McGraw-Hill, New York / London / Toronto 1955, pp. 136-137.
  • Bernard V. Lightman: Victorian popularizers of science: designing nature for new audiences . University of Chicago Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-22648118-0 , pp. 353-356.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About our knowledge of the causes of phenomena in organic nature. P. 1.
  2. ^ Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley . Volume 1, p. 298.
  3. ^ Bernard V. Lightman, p. 353.
  4. ↑ Ralph Colp, Jr .: The Contacts Between Karl Marx and Charles Darwin. In: Journal of the History of Ideas. Volume 35, No. 2, p. 329.
  5. ↑ meant is Lord.
  6. ↑ Irvine p. 137.
  7. ↑ Thomas Henry Huxley to Joseph Dalton Hooker , early January 1863, letter, in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley . Volume 1, p. 300.
  8. ^ Charles Lyell to Thomas Henry Huxley January 28, 1863, letter, in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley . Volume 1, p. 301.
  9. ↑ Thomas Henry Huxley to Charles Darwin, December 2, 1862, Letter 3841 in The Darwin Correspondence Project, (accessed August 20, 2009).
  10. ^ Charles Darwin to Thomas Henry Huxley, December 7, 1862, Letter 3848 in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed August 20, 2009).
  11. ↑ Charles Darwin to Thomas Henry Huxley, December 18, 1862, Letter 3866 in The Darwin Correspondence Project (accessed August 20, 2009).

Web links