[PhilPhys] TUESDAY - Lunch Time Talk - Alison McConwell - A Historical Case Study in Philosophical Conversation ...

[Center for Phil Sci]

The Center for Philosophy of Science invites you to join us for our Lunch Time Talk.  Attend in person, Room 1117 on the 11th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh or visit our live stream on

Zoom at https://pitt.zoom.us/j/95538543819 or

YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg.

LTT: Alison McConwell
Tuesday, April 2nd @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT


Title:  A Historical Case Study in Philosophical Conversation: J.B.S. Haldane (1892-1964) & Julian Huxley’s (1887-1975) Social Values in a Scientific Worldview


Abstract:

Rhetoric about the meaning of empirical work in the Evolutionary Synthesis (c. 1930s-1950s) became part of the established worldview of that era bringing scientific thought to bear on policy issues concerning the management of humanity’s evolutionary future. Julian Huxley (e.g., 1912, 1923, 136, 1942, 1962) and JBS Haldane (e.g., 1923, 1931, 1932a, 1932b, 1935) agreed that the promise of T.H. Morgan’s genetics in the early 1900s was not only the alleviation of disease, but also the ability to harness control of human evolution through artificial insemination by “Great Men.” ?They disagreed, however, over evolution’s progress, perfection, and the inevitable degeneration of humanity. Their exchanges are relevant to more recent discussions on progress and degeneration in the evolutionary sciences by intellectual historians (e.g., Bowler 1989, Provine 1983, Ruse 1996, Herring 2018).?  I contend that Huxley and Haldane’s conversations shape the penultimate chapter of Huxley’s 1942 Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, a book coining the name of that era. That is, Haldane serves as a shadow author for that book constructing the fate of humanity’s evolutionary future as the backbone of the Synthesis. My argument will unfold in narrative structure tracing the conversation through their published works and correspondence. While sometimes scientific knowledge used to support ideologies about social reform derived from their evolutionary perspectives, social values infused Huxley and Haldane’s technical conversations of what was at stake during this significant turning point in evolution’s intellectual history. The analysis will be informed by existing philosophical literature on values-as-evidence approaches (e.g., Anderson 2004, 2006, Goldenberg 2015, Clough 2020, Millstein 2023).



Alison McConwell's short introduction video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fQSjcrU9M0&t=9s
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