Items related to Kitcher, P: Mit Darwin leben

Kitcher, P: Mit Darwin leben - Hardcover

 
9783518585177: Kitcher, P: Mit Darwin leben

Synopsis

When Charles Darwin died in 1882, at the request of the family he was to be buried in the cemetery of that small village in Kent where he had spent almost half his life. Nothing became of that. A public campaign with explicit support from the Anglican Church led to the founder of evolutionary theory receiving a state funeral and finding his final resting place in Westminster Abbey - right next to Isaac Newton's tomb. The peace between the Church and Darwin, however, was short-lived. Today, 150 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, the struggle for the theory of evolution has rekindled and Darwin's "dangerous idea" stands for disposition especially for representatives of Christian creation and its scientific play, the so-called intelligent design theory. Science philosopher Philip Kitcher traces the history of this exploration that dates back to initially unresolved tensions in Darwin's theory itself. He shows that many arguments put forward today by creationists were considered and discarded already in Darwin's time, even by Darwin himself. Intelligent Design, says Kitcher, is therefore not pseudoscience, but a dead science that raises questions that have long since been clarified. And the argument over Darwin is in truth only one facet of a much more comprehensive clash between religious beliefs and scientific discoveries. Kitcher presents a vehement defense of evolutionary theory without downplaying the meaningful function of religion, especially in times of social uncertainty. Questions of meaning are essentially social questions. Only when these are answered, so his conclusion, can we give up faith in the supernatural--and finally live with Darwin.

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