San Antonio College Library

Somit and Peterson seek to explain two apparently contradictory yet well-established political phenomena: First, throughout human history, the vast majority of political societies have been authoritarian. Second, notwithstanding this pattern, from time to time, democracies do emerge and some even have considerable stability. A neo-Darwinian approach can help make sense of these observations. Humans - social primates - have an inborn bias toward authoritarian...

Without minimising or sentimentalising the harsh qualities of life governed by natural selection, and without deifying Darwin, this text makes a moving case for an enchanted secularism - a commitment to the value of the natural world and the human striving to understand it.

A final collection of essays from "Natural History" magazine includes writings on such subjects as Charles Darwin, the methods of science versus those of the humanistic disciplines, Nabokov's butterfly research, and the author's grandfather's arrival in America one hundred years ago.

Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution with stories that entertain as much as they inform, and shows how, properly understood, these principles can illuminate the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to the nature of religion. Now everyone can move beyond the sterile debates about creationism and intelligent design to share Darwin's panoramic view of animal and human life, seamlessly connected to each other. Evolution,...

A modern geneticist revisits Darwin's classic work to offer contemporary examples and modern research that confirm the book's conclusions on evolution.

Social Darwinism is not a monolithic concept, as might be inferred from such comments. What it is, however, has been obscured by the uses to which it has been put in the past hundred years. After the Civil War, so the story goes, a misapplied Darwinism rationalized cut-throat competition, callous individualism, and laissez-faire. But in his reinterpretation of this major historical current, Professor Bannister challenges this view. He argues that...

Synopsis: Social Darwinism in American Thought portrays the overall influence of Darwin on American social theory and the notable battle waged among thinkers over the implications of evolutionary theory for social thought and political action. Theorists such as Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner adopted the idea of the struggle for existence as justification for the evils as well as the benefits of laissez-faire modern industrial society. Others...

"Although its implications are not yet fully evident, the advent of a modern scientific theory of intelligent design (ID), and a scholarly research community advancing this theory (the ID movement) has re-energized and is now redefining the character of this controversy. Darwinism, Design, and Public Education examines ID as a science, a philosophy, and a movement for educational reform. In this book, leading design theorists present their scientific...

"Darwin's theory of evolution, which implied that our ancestors were apes, caused a furore in the scientific world and beyond when The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Arguments still rage about the implications of his evolutionary theory, and scepticism about the value of Darwin's contribution to knowledge is widespread. In this analysis of Darwin's major insights and arguments, Jonathan Howard reasserts the importance of Darwin's work for...