T. H. Huxley, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Impact of Evolution on the Human Self-Narrative
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Emelie Jonsson
Abstract
From the time of its discovery, evolutionary theory has been shaped into dramatic narratives with human goals and value structures. Why has it been treated this way, often by its scientific proponents? Modern evolutionary psychology provides an answer. By appealing to universal human concerns, stories help map out the physical and social world, imbuing it with positive and negative values, visions of desirable and undesirable ways of life. Evolutionary theory contains no such imaginative mapping. As a nonmythological account of humanity, it poses a universal challenge to the human mind, even as it stimulates by revealing unimagined facts. Darwin's contemporaries were the first to negotiate that balance. The new human self-narratives they created can help us understand the challenge we still face. In this article, I analyze two such narratives: one in T. H. Huxley's scientific monograph Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature (1863) and one in Arthur Conan Doyle's adventure novel The Lost World (1912).
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© 2018 Academic Studies Press
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- SYMPOSIUM ON EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS
- Economic Theory and Social Policy: Where We Are, Where We Are Headed
- Where We Are Headed versus Where We Want to Go: Economic Theory at a Crossroads?
- Economic Ontology and the Science of Nonpachydermology
- Economic Theory, Complexity, and Social Policy
- Herbert “Ulysses” Gintis
- Economics Can Be Powerful but Needs to Move On
- Should New Economic Thinking Be Incremental or Paradigmatic?
- Economics and the Promise of Evolutionary Studies
- Simplicity and Complexity in Economic Theory
- ARTICLES
- Long Childhood, Family Networks, and Cultural Exclusivity: Missing Links in the Debate over Human Group Selection and Altruism
- T. H. Huxley, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Impact of Evolution on the Human Self-Narrative
- REVIEW ESSAY
- The History and Future of Human Prospection
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Apostolou, Menelaos. 2017. Sexual Selection in Homo Sapiens: Parental Control over Mating and the Opportunity Cost of Free Mate Choice.
- Bribiescas, Richard G. 2016. How Men Age: What Evolution Reveals about Male Health and Mortality.
- Burke, Michael, and Emily T. Troscianko, eds. 2017. Cognitive Literary Science: Dialogues between Literature and Cognition.
- Clasen, Mathias. 2017. Why Horror Seduces.
- Dennett, Daniel C. 2017. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds.
- Kaufman, Whitley R. P. 2016. Human Nature and the Limits of Darwinism.
- Laland, Kevin. 2017. Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind.
- McAdams, Richard H. 2015. The Expressive Power of Law: Theories and Limits.
- Prum, Richard O. 2017. The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us.
- Smith, Murray. 2017. Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film.
- Turchin, Peter. 2016. Ages of Discord: A Structural Demographic Analysis of American History.
- Ungar, Peter S. 2017. Evolution’s Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins.
- Wilson, David S., and Alan Kirman, eds. 2016. Complexity and Evolution: Toward a New Synthesis for Economics.
- Contributors
Articles in the same Issue
- Back Matter
- Front Matter
- SYMPOSIUM ON EVOLUTIONARY ECONOMICS
- Economic Theory and Social Policy: Where We Are, Where We Are Headed
- Where We Are Headed versus Where We Want to Go: Economic Theory at a Crossroads?
- Economic Ontology and the Science of Nonpachydermology
- Economic Theory, Complexity, and Social Policy
- Herbert “Ulysses” Gintis
- Economics Can Be Powerful but Needs to Move On
- Should New Economic Thinking Be Incremental or Paradigmatic?
- Economics and the Promise of Evolutionary Studies
- Simplicity and Complexity in Economic Theory
- ARTICLES
- Long Childhood, Family Networks, and Cultural Exclusivity: Missing Links in the Debate over Human Group Selection and Altruism
- T. H. Huxley, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the Impact of Evolution on the Human Self-Narrative
- REVIEW ESSAY
- The History and Future of Human Prospection
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Apostolou, Menelaos. 2017. Sexual Selection in Homo Sapiens: Parental Control over Mating and the Opportunity Cost of Free Mate Choice.
- Bribiescas, Richard G. 2016. How Men Age: What Evolution Reveals about Male Health and Mortality.
- Burke, Michael, and Emily T. Troscianko, eds. 2017. Cognitive Literary Science: Dialogues between Literature and Cognition.
- Clasen, Mathias. 2017. Why Horror Seduces.
- Dennett, Daniel C. 2017. From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds.
- Kaufman, Whitley R. P. 2016. Human Nature and the Limits of Darwinism.
- Laland, Kevin. 2017. Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony: How Culture Made the Human Mind.
- McAdams, Richard H. 2015. The Expressive Power of Law: Theories and Limits.
- Prum, Richard O. 2017. The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World—and Us.
- Smith, Murray. 2017. Film, Art, and the Third Culture: A Naturalized Aesthetics of Film.
- Turchin, Peter. 2016. Ages of Discord: A Structural Demographic Analysis of American History.
- Ungar, Peter S. 2017. Evolution’s Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins.
- Wilson, David S., and Alan Kirman, eds. 2016. Complexity and Evolution: Toward a New Synthesis for Economics.
- Contributors