Enthroning Naturalism Chapter 4

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Enthroning NaturalismChapter 4

• 13 September 2007

Steve Hovick
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Re On The Origin of Species

• That this most ingenious hypothesis enables us
  to give a reason for many apparent anomalies in
  the distribution of living beings in time and
  space, and that it is not contradicted by the
  main phenomena of life and organisation appear to
  us to be unquestionable and, so far, it must be
  admitted to have an immense advantage over any of
  its predecessors. But it is quite another matter
  to affirm absolutely either the truth or
  falsehood of Mr. Darwin's views at the present
  stage of the inquiry.
• -from The Times of London, 26 December 1859
• (anonymous review, written by TH Huxley)

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T.H. Huxley

• Pulled from school at age 10
• Self-taught and fluent in German
• (often translated articles for Darwin)
• Took only one of 2 required exams for medical
  degree at the University of London, so never
  finished
• At age 20 he was broke, so joined the Royal Navy
  as assistant surgeon
• Studied marine invertebrates while at sea
• Classified Hydrozoans based on 2-layered body
  plan
• Classification work with tunicates
• Morphological work with molluscs
• Fossil evidence showing affinity between birds
  and dinosaurs
• Noted fossil horse teeth from America changing
  from browsers to grazers
• Origin of the term agnostic (as a
  self-descriptive term)

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T.H. Huxley Darwins Bulldogirreverent
manner, aggressive bearing, and magnetic
personality (Larson p. 81)

• And as to the curs which will bark and yelp....I
  am sharpening my claws and beak in readiness
• Old ladies, of both sexes, consider it a
  decidedly dangerous book
• No competent thinker of the present day dreams
  of explaining these indubitable facts by the
  notion of the existence of unknown and
  undiscoverable adaptations to purpose.
• From Huxleys Times review

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Darwins Proponents(and some differences of
opinion)

• Thomas Henry Huxley
• Saltation rather than pure gradualism
• Origins of life should not be from a divine
  source
• Somewhat ambivalent re common ancestor
• Insufficient evidence for species from variety
• Natural selection as a hypothesis, not a theory
• Until reading Ernst Haeckels Generelle
  Morphologie (1867)
• Charles Lyell
• Believed in fixity of species and multiple
  creation events
• Maintained belief in the necessity of a creator
  (till early 1860s)
• Asa Gray
• God guides evolutionary process (theistic
  evolution)

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from The Gauntlet (c. 1870) The Huxley Files
(http//aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/)
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Foreshadowing by Huxley?

• "In 1860 I may fairly look forward to fifteen or
  twenty years 'Meisterjahre,' and with the
  comprehensive views my training will have given
  me, I think it will be possible in that time to
  give a new and healthier direction to all
  Biological Science. To smite all humbug, however
  big to give a nobler tone to science to set an
  example of abstinence from petty personal
  controversies, and of toleration for everything
  but lying to be indifferent as to whether the
  work is recognised as mine or not, so long as it
  is doneare these my aims? 1860 will show
• from Huxleys journal, dated December 31,
  1856

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Huxley and Wilberforce(1860)

• The Lord hath delivered him into mine hands...
• Dr. Hooker being called upon by the President to
  state his views of the botanical aspect of the
  question, observed that the Bishop of Oxford
  having asserted that all men of science were
  hostile to Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, whereas he
  himself was favourable to it, he could not
  presume to address the audience as a scientific
  authority. As, however, he had been asked for his
  opinion, he would briefly give it.
• Notes from Athenaeum report on Section D (July
  1860) from the Year Book of Facts (1861)
• (The Huxley File http//aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/
  guide7.html)

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Richard Owen

• As a boy, identified as lazy and impudent
• Entered medical school in 1824 (age 20)
• - quit because of poor quality of teaching
• Assistant at the Royal College of Surgeons (1826)
• Responsible for cataloguing the Hunterian
  collection
• (13,000 anatomical specimens!)
• Thus was born an interest in comparative anatomy
• Began giving Hunterian lectures to the public
  (1837)
• Described fossil vertebrates from Darwins Voyage

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Richard Owen

• The British Cuvier inferred prior existence
• of moas on New Zealand from a single
• ostrich-like bone fragment (1839)
• Named Dinosauria taxon for 3 fossil reptiles
  (1842)
• Defined homology (1843)
• Described anatomy of a newly-discovered ape
  (Gorilla,1849)
• Incorrectly argued apes differ from humans in
  lacking a hippocampus
• (Huxley enjoyed setting the record straight!)
• Wrote over 600 scientific articles

Owens pronouncements on the subject of
evolution were puzzling and contradictory in
later years he alternately denied its validity,
professed ignorance on the matter, and claimed to
have come up with the idea himself almost ten
years before Darwin. (from http//www.ucmp.berk
eley.edu/history/owen.html)
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On Disliking Owen

• It is astonishing with what an intense feeling
  of hatred Owen is regarded by the majority of his
  contemporaries, Huxley observed in 1851, with
  Mantell as arch-hater (Larson, p. 46)
• a pity a man so talented should be so dastardly
  and envious Mantell
• Reminder Mantell discovered Iguanodon and
  Hylaeosaurus and postulated a geological age of
  reptiles
• Owens later related publications implied
  Mantells incompetence
• Interpreted Iguanodon tooth as rhinocerous (later
  overturned by more fossil evidence by Mantell)
• Took credit for interpretation of pterodactylian
  bones found by Mantell
• Tried to keep the Royal Society from awarding
  Mantell the Royal Medal
• Had a section of Mantells spine pickled and
  displayed at Museum of the Royal College of
  Surgeons as the severest degree of deformity
• Allegedly wrote a derisive obituary (anonomously)
  for Mantell
• Darwin I used to be ashamed of hating him so
  much, but now I will carefully cherish my hatred
  contempt to the last days of my life".

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• Am I satyr or man?       Pray tell me who can,
  And settle my place in the scale.       A man
  in ape's shape,       An anthropoid ape, Or
  monkey deprived of his tail?       The Vestiges
  taught,       That all came from naught By
  "development," so called, "progressive"      
  That insects and worms       Assume higher forms
  By modification excessive.       Then Darwin
  set forth       In a book of much worth, The
  importance of "nature's selection"       How
  the struggle for life       Is a laudable
  strife, And results in "specific distinction."
• (first 3 stanzas of Monkeyana from Punch, May
  1861)

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Applying natural selection to humans

• Darwins 2 main arguments from The Descent of Man
• 1st physical similarity between human and ape
  bodies
• 2nd human abilities differed in degree (rather
  than in kind) from those of other animals
  (Larson p. 97)
• Natural selection could be used to explain and
  predict British dominance, social classes, etc.
• Used sexual selection to explain gender/race
  differences

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What makes a human?

• Altruism Morality
• Self-awareness Reasoned thought
• Intelligence Ability to love
• Language Religious devotion
• Empathy Social behavior

• Mirror self-recognition (MSR)
• 4 stages of response
• Social response
• Physical inspection
• Repetitive mirror-testing behavior
• Realization of seeing themselves
• Passing through all stages is verified by the
  mark test

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vbEj-Sl4j0_c

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• Plotnik et al. 2006. Self-recognition in an
  Asian elephant. PNAS

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MSR by Happy, Maxine and Patty

• All 3 elephants showed repetitive mirror-testing
  behavior
• Bringing food to eat in front of it
• Repetitive movements in and out of mirror view
• Repetitive trunk and body movement
• Interpreted as self-directed behavior
• Maxine and Patty physically inspected the mirror
• Happy passed the mark testMSR complete!

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References

• Useful websites
• The Huxley File http//aleph0.clarku.edu/huxley/
• The JD Hooker Website http//www.jdhooker.org.uk/
  
• UC Museum of Paleontology http//www.ucmp.berkele
  y.edu/history/owen.html
• Strange Science http//www.strangescience.net/ind
  ex.htm
• Darwin Correspondence Project http//www.darwinpr
  oject.ac.uk/index.php
• Wikipedia www.wikipedia.com
• Interesting papers related to human evolution
• Benedict, CJ, LM DeBruine, AC Little, RP Burriss,
  and DR Feinberg. 2007. Social transmission of
  face preferences among humans. Proc. Roy. Soc. B
  274 899-903.
• Bickerton, D. 2000. Resolving discontinuity A
  minimalist distinction between human and
  non-human minds. American Zoologist 40862-873.
• Brosnan, SF and FBM de Waal. 2003. Monkeys reject
  unequal pay. Nature 425 297-299.
• Gangestad, SW, R Thornhill, and CE Garver-Apgar.
  2005. Womens sexual interests across the
  ovulatory cycle depend on primary partner
  developmental instability. Proc. Roy. Soc. B 272
  2023-2027.
• Gardner, A and SA West. 2004. Cooperation and
  punishment, especially in humans. American
  Naturalist 164 753-764.
• Plotnik, JM, FBM de Waal, and D Reiss. 2006.
  Self-recognition in an Asian elephant. PNAS 103
  17053-17057.
• Wynn, T. 2002. Archaeology and cognitive
  evolution. Behavioral and Brain Science 25
  389-438.