John C. Avise
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369670
- eISBN:
- 9780199871063
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369670.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
About 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. This makes the exceptional 0.1%—the asexual or clonal reproducers—fascinating in their own right, and also uniquely instructive about the ...
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About 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. This makes the exceptional 0.1%—the asexual or clonal reproducers—fascinating in their own right, and also uniquely instructive about the biological significance of alternative reproductive modes. This book describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of all of the world's approximately 100 “species” of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction. The book investigates the astounding realm of sexual abstinence, from the levels of DNA molecules and somatic cells to whole animals and natural populations. Also described is how scientists have learned to mimic and extend nature's own clonal processes by engineering perfect copies of genes, genomes, and whole animals in the laboratory. By considering the many facets of sexual abstinence and clonal reproduction in vertebrate animals, new light is also shed on the biological meaning and ramifications of standard sexuality.Less
About 99.9% of vertebrate species reproduce sexually. This makes the exceptional 0.1%—the asexual or clonal reproducers—fascinating in their own right, and also uniquely instructive about the biological significance of alternative reproductive modes. This book describes the genetics, ecology, natural history, and evolution of all of the world's approximately 100 “species” of vertebrate animal that routinely display one form or another of clonal or quasi-clonal reproduction. The book investigates the astounding realm of sexual abstinence, from the levels of DNA molecules and somatic cells to whole animals and natural populations. Also described is how scientists have learned to mimic and extend nature's own clonal processes by engineering perfect copies of genes, genomes, and whole animals in the laboratory. By considering the many facets of sexual abstinence and clonal reproduction in vertebrate animals, new light is also shed on the biological meaning and ramifications of standard sexuality.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199296446
- eISBN:
- 9780191711985
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199296446.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something ...
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There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something created. The natural history tradition was marginalized with the introduction of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, but it continued to play a role in conceiving of nature as a text to be read in a similar way to that in which revelation was read. Developments in biblical and legal philology in the 16th century transformed the model on which natural history was based, and as a result, it ceased to be allegorical and became literal. By the 17th century, it had begun to provide a new kind of religious reading of nature.Less
There was always a lack of fit between natural philosophy and natural history in the Aristotelian tradition, and the latter was better adapted to the Christian idea of the universe as something created. The natural history tradition was marginalized with the introduction of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, but it continued to play a role in conceiving of nature as a text to be read in a similar way to that in which revelation was read. Developments in biblical and legal philology in the 16th century transformed the model on which natural history was based, and as a result, it ceased to be allegorical and became literal. By the 17th century, it had begun to provide a new kind of religious reading of nature.
Martin Schöneld
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195132182
- eISBN:
- 9780199786336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195132181.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric ...
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This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric conceptions of nature by the Pietists, Physico-Theologians, Newton, and Wolff. Section 2 describes the goal of Kant’s teleology, its naturalized thrust toward well-ordered complexity or “relative perfection.” Section 3 examines the means of Kant”s teleology, the dynamic interplay of attractive and repulsive forces. Section 4 analyzes the application of teleology to cosmic phenomena such as the solar system, Wright’s earlier stipulation, Laplace’s later conjecture, and the eventual confirmation of Kant’s nebular hypothesis. Section 5 explores Kant’s arguments for life, humanity, and reason as products of cosmic evolution. Section 6 discusses Kant’s “static law” — that the mean planetary density determines the biospherical potential of reason — and its incongruity with the racism in Physical Geography (1756-60) and Beautiful and Sublime (1764). Section 7 describes Kant’s dynamic cosmology, explicates his “phoenix”-symbol, and discusses his various scientific aperçus.Less
This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric conceptions of nature by the Pietists, Physico-Theologians, Newton, and Wolff. Section 2 describes the goal of Kant’s teleology, its naturalized thrust toward well-ordered complexity or “relative perfection.” Section 3 examines the means of Kant”s teleology, the dynamic interplay of attractive and repulsive forces. Section 4 analyzes the application of teleology to cosmic phenomena such as the solar system, Wright’s earlier stipulation, Laplace’s later conjecture, and the eventual confirmation of Kant’s nebular hypothesis. Section 5 explores Kant’s arguments for life, humanity, and reason as products of cosmic evolution. Section 6 discusses Kant’s “static law” — that the mean planetary density determines the biospherical potential of reason — and its incongruity with the racism in Physical Geography (1756-60) and Beautiful and Sublime (1764). Section 7 describes Kant’s dynamic cosmology, explicates his “phoenix”-symbol, and discusses his various scientific aperçus.
Amy M. King
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161519
- eISBN:
- 9780199787838
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161519.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's ...
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Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's prurience — this book offers a fresh reading of the courtship novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot and Henry James. By reanimating a cultural understanding of botany and sexuality that we have lost, it provides a new and powerful account of the novel's role in scripting sexualized courtship, and illuminates how the novel and popular science together created a cultural figure, the blooming girl, that stood at the center of both fictional and scientific worlds.Less
Starting from the botanical crazes inspired by Linnaeus in the 18th century, and exploring the variations it spawned — natural history, landscape architecture, polemical battles over botany's prurience — this book offers a fresh reading of the courtship novel from Jane Austen to George Eliot and Henry James. By reanimating a cultural understanding of botany and sexuality that we have lost, it provides a new and powerful account of the novel's role in scripting sexualized courtship, and illuminates how the novel and popular science together created a cultural figure, the blooming girl, that stood at the center of both fictional and scientific worlds.
Martin Schöneld
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195132182
- eISBN:
- 9780199786336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195132181.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter explores Kant’s studies from 1754 to 1757, the application of his dynamic perspectives to fire, tides, the Earth’s rotation, climate, winds, and earthquakes. Section 1 surveys the ...
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This chapter explores Kant’s studies from 1754 to 1757, the application of his dynamic perspectives to fire, tides, the Earth’s rotation, climate, winds, and earthquakes. Section 1 surveys the background of Kant’s efforts in the 1750s, such as how his earthquake papers relate to the Lisbon tsunami (1755), and describes his co-discovery of sea wind patterns and his discovery of the monsoon dynamics. Section 2 examines Kant’s study of the fate of Earth’s rotation (1754) and its correct determination of the dynamic interplay among lunar period, tidal forces, oceanic friction, and the long-term slowdown of Earth’s rotation. Section 3 discusses Kant’s Master’s Thesis (1755), his chemical conjectures on fire, and his attempt to clarify the spatial energy field, the ether. Section 4 examines Kant’s qualitative approach to cosmological questions and his heuristic reliance on analogical reasoning.Less
This chapter explores Kant’s studies from 1754 to 1757, the application of his dynamic perspectives to fire, tides, the Earth’s rotation, climate, winds, and earthquakes. Section 1 surveys the background of Kant’s efforts in the 1750s, such as how his earthquake papers relate to the Lisbon tsunami (1755), and describes his co-discovery of sea wind patterns and his discovery of the monsoon dynamics. Section 2 examines Kant’s study of the fate of Earth’s rotation (1754) and its correct determination of the dynamic interplay among lunar period, tidal forces, oceanic friction, and the long-term slowdown of Earth’s rotation. Section 3 discusses Kant’s Master’s Thesis (1755), his chemical conjectures on fire, and his attempt to clarify the spatial energy field, the ether. Section 4 examines Kant’s qualitative approach to cosmological questions and his heuristic reliance on analogical reasoning.
Trevor Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262885
- eISBN:
- 9780191719004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262885.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This introductory chapter argues for a reading of Pliny's encyclopaedia as a political document, a cultural artefact of the Roman empire just as much as the Encyclopaedia Britannica was an artefact ...
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This introductory chapter argues for a reading of Pliny's encyclopaedia as a political document, a cultural artefact of the Roman empire just as much as the Encyclopaedia Britannica was an artefact of the British empire. It then discusses the life of Pliny the Elder, and Natural History as an extremely important artefact of Roman culture. An overview of the succeeding chapters is presented.Less
This introductory chapter argues for a reading of Pliny's encyclopaedia as a political document, a cultural artefact of the Roman empire just as much as the Encyclopaedia Britannica was an artefact of the British empire. It then discusses the life of Pliny the Elder, and Natural History as an extremely important artefact of Roman culture. An overview of the succeeding chapters is presented.
Amy M. King
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195161519
- eISBN:
- 9780199787838
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161519.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter traces the way George Eliot's novels extend the courtship plot to nonmarital sexuality, or what Linnaeus called “clandestine marriage.” It explores how 19th-century natural history and ...
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This chapter traces the way George Eliot's novels extend the courtship plot to nonmarital sexuality, or what Linnaeus called “clandestine marriage.” It explores how 19th-century natural history and its classificatory energies are employed by Eliot to not only represent versions of courtship anticipated by Linnaeus (yet neglected by novelists) but also to achieve, more broadly, a new kind of realism in which the representation of the social world is achieved through organizing principles derived from natural history.Less
This chapter traces the way George Eliot's novels extend the courtship plot to nonmarital sexuality, or what Linnaeus called “clandestine marriage.” It explores how 19th-century natural history and its classificatory energies are employed by Eliot to not only represent versions of courtship anticipated by Linnaeus (yet neglected by novelists) but also to achieve, more broadly, a new kind of realism in which the representation of the social world is achieved through organizing principles derived from natural history.
Juliette Blevins
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298495
- eISBN:
- 9780191711442
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298495.003.0004
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics
This chapter argues that there are clear natural and unnatural histories for patterns of consonant insertion which make no reference to syllable onset or segmental markedness. It offers new ways of ...
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This chapter argues that there are clear natural and unnatural histories for patterns of consonant insertion which make no reference to syllable onset or segmental markedness. It offers new ways of understanding the typology of C-epenthesis. Within the realm of natural history, glide epenthesis and laryngeal epenthesis are two distinct subtypes with different phonetic and phonological profiles. In the domain of unnatural histories, significant correlations are observed between consonants subject to coda weakening and those involved in epenthesis. This finding follows from our understanding of rule inversion as part of phonological acquisition. Finally, a mix of natural and unnatural history characterizes the analysis of Oceanic j-accretion and Ritwan l-sandhi.Less
This chapter argues that there are clear natural and unnatural histories for patterns of consonant insertion which make no reference to syllable onset or segmental markedness. It offers new ways of understanding the typology of C-epenthesis. Within the realm of natural history, glide epenthesis and laryngeal epenthesis are two distinct subtypes with different phonetic and phonological profiles. In the domain of unnatural histories, significant correlations are observed between consonants subject to coda weakening and those involved in epenthesis. This finding follows from our understanding of rule inversion as part of phonological acquisition. Finally, a mix of natural and unnatural history characterizes the analysis of Oceanic j-accretion and Ritwan l-sandhi.
Trevor Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262885
- eISBN:
- 9780191719004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262885.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter examines the taxonomies upon which the Natural History is built. It shows that the central organizing principle of the encyclopaedia is to divide things into categories by contrast, but ...
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This chapter examines the taxonomies upon which the Natural History is built. It shows that the central organizing principle of the encyclopaedia is to divide things into categories by contrast, but this is a principle that is often complicated by an opposing tendency to recognize affinities across divisions. The thirty-seven books of the encyclopaedia articulate the world as a web of divisions and affinities, and often move from one subject to another not in order to develop an argument or in a logically sequenced survey, but according to analogies or contrasts between things to be described.Less
This chapter examines the taxonomies upon which the Natural History is built. It shows that the central organizing principle of the encyclopaedia is to divide things into categories by contrast, but this is a principle that is often complicated by an opposing tendency to recognize affinities across divisions. The thirty-seven books of the encyclopaedia articulate the world as a web of divisions and affinities, and often move from one subject to another not in order to develop an argument or in a logically sequenced survey, but according to analogies or contrasts between things to be described.
Trevor Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262885
- eISBN:
- 9780191719004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262885.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter considers metaphors of geographical description found in the Natural History. It argues that the narrative and biographical qualities of the Natural History's geography suggest a reason ...
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This chapter considers metaphors of geographical description found in the Natural History. It argues that the narrative and biographical qualities of the Natural History's geography suggest a reason for the prominence of famous mountains and rivers. In presenting the world to the reader's eye, the Natural History draws on the debt of traditional Roman geography to the institution of the triumph — that is, the spectacular display in triumphal processions of conquered territory in the forms of titles on placards, or of icons — maps, cities, mountains, and rivers. If we look at it in the light of this type of triumphal iconography, the biographical quality of the descriptions of mountains and rivers is easily understood.Less
This chapter considers metaphors of geographical description found in the Natural History. It argues that the narrative and biographical qualities of the Natural History's geography suggest a reason for the prominence of famous mountains and rivers. In presenting the world to the reader's eye, the Natural History draws on the debt of traditional Roman geography to the institution of the triumph — that is, the spectacular display in triumphal processions of conquered territory in the forms of titles on placards, or of icons — maps, cities, mountains, and rivers. If we look at it in the light of this type of triumphal iconography, the biographical quality of the descriptions of mountains and rivers is easily understood.
Trevor Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262885
- eISBN:
- 9780191719004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262885.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This conclusion considers the conceptual importance of the Roman emperor as arbiter of what might be known about nature, the unspoken tension between the Natural History and the emperor, and the ...
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This conclusion considers the conceptual importance of the Roman emperor as arbiter of what might be known about nature, the unspoken tension between the Natural History and the emperor, and the question of on what the encyclopaedia's authority was thought to rest. It also discusses the impact of the writing of the Natural History on later European civilization.Less
This conclusion considers the conceptual importance of the Roman emperor as arbiter of what might be known about nature, the unspoken tension between the Natural History and the emperor, and the question of on what the encyclopaedia's authority was thought to rest. It also discusses the impact of the writing of the Natural History on later European civilization.
Frederick Rowe Davis
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195310771
- eISBN:
- 9780199790098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195310771.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Aquatic Biology
Early in life, Carr developed an appreciation of nature through his own initiative and through hunting and fishing trips with his father. Carr's interest in natural history and herpetology evolved at ...
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Early in life, Carr developed an appreciation of nature through his own initiative and through hunting and fishing trips with his father. Carr's interest in natural history and herpetology evolved at the University of Florida, where a dedicated group of professors taught the scientific method and emphasized the relationship between humans and nature while encouraging organismal studies of Florida taxa. Beyond Carr's passion for field work in Florida and his courses with a dedicated group of professors, he benefited considerably from correspondence with several established herpetologists in America. In combination, Carr's childhood hunting trips, formal university study, and extensive correspondence with American herpetologists provided him with a strong background to begin his career as an instructor at the University of Florida.Less
Early in life, Carr developed an appreciation of nature through his own initiative and through hunting and fishing trips with his father. Carr's interest in natural history and herpetology evolved at the University of Florida, where a dedicated group of professors taught the scientific method and emphasized the relationship between humans and nature while encouraging organismal studies of Florida taxa. Beyond Carr's passion for field work in Florida and his courses with a dedicated group of professors, he benefited considerably from correspondence with several established herpetologists in America. In combination, Carr's childhood hunting trips, formal university study, and extensive correspondence with American herpetologists provided him with a strong background to begin his career as an instructor at the University of Florida.
Trevor Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199262885
- eISBN:
- 9780191719004
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262885.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
This chapter addresses the mutually beneficial relationship between Roman expansionism and the Natural History. It is Roman power that is credited with allowing the encyclopaedia's global design to ...
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This chapter addresses the mutually beneficial relationship between Roman expansionism and the Natural History. It is Roman power that is credited with allowing the encyclopaedia's global design to be executed, but at the same time the knowledge made accessible by Roman power is thought to be in danger of being erased by the pressures of a unified world.Less
This chapter addresses the mutually beneficial relationship between Roman expansionism and the Natural History. It is Roman power that is credited with allowing the encyclopaedia's global design to be executed, but at the same time the knowledge made accessible by Roman power is thought to be in danger of being erased by the pressures of a unified world.
Geoffrey Belknap
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780226676517
- eISBN:
- 9780226683461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226683461.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter explores the changing visions for one of the first subject specialist periodical formats of the nineteenth century, the natural history periodical. It follows three broadly differing ...
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This chapter explores the changing visions for one of the first subject specialist periodical formats of the nineteenth century, the natural history periodical. It follows three broadly differing visions for natural history periodicals between 1828 and 1865, which began with John Claudius Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, was adapted by Richard Taylor and William Francis’s Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and ended with Thomas Henry Huxley’s Natural History Review. For Loudon, a natural history periodical was a communal space where the work of the periodical was “supported by the voluntary contribution of their readers.” For Huxley, natural history was an antiquated practice, in need of reform. In between these two visions lay the Annals and Magazine, which struck a balance between these two poles. A mixture of these visions would form foundational aspects of the specialist scientific periodical culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These visions would take different form in specialist scientific periodicals like Nature in the late nineteenth century but also in more subject specific periodicals like the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. Non-professional naturalists, moreover, continued to contribute to natural history, but increasingly in their own periodicals such as Hardwicke’s Science Gossip.Less
This chapter explores the changing visions for one of the first subject specialist periodical formats of the nineteenth century, the natural history periodical. It follows three broadly differing visions for natural history periodicals between 1828 and 1865, which began with John Claudius Loudon’s Magazine of Natural History, was adapted by Richard Taylor and William Francis’s Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and ended with Thomas Henry Huxley’s Natural History Review. For Loudon, a natural history periodical was a communal space where the work of the periodical was “supported by the voluntary contribution of their readers.” For Huxley, natural history was an antiquated practice, in need of reform. In between these two visions lay the Annals and Magazine, which struck a balance between these two poles. A mixture of these visions would form foundational aspects of the specialist scientific periodical culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These visions would take different form in specialist scientific periodicals like Nature in the late nineteenth century but also in more subject specific periodicals like the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. Non-professional naturalists, moreover, continued to contribute to natural history, but increasingly in their own periodicals such as Hardwicke’s Science Gossip.
Dana Phillips
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195137699
- eISBN:
- 9780199787937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137699.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter offers a sustained discussion of American “nature writing” which in the narrow sense of the term refers to a nonfiction prose essay describing its author's efforts to establish an ...
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This chapter offers a sustained discussion of American “nature writing” which in the narrow sense of the term refers to a nonfiction prose essay describing its author's efforts to establish an emotional connection with the natural world, efforts which as a rule are undertaken during an excursion into the wild. That so much “nature writing” follows this pattern suggests that it is conventional rather than wholly or even partially “natural”, as some ecocritics have claimed it is, thereby implicitly contradicting their own identification of its typical features as traditional. “Nature writing” of the conventional kind can be distinguished from natural history, in which the subjective experience of the author is less important, which is less belletristic, and which is comfortable with scientific fact and theory. By contrast, “nature writing” is self-consciously literary; its authors incline to mysticism, often courting epiphany and revelation in natural settings; and they frequently display impatience with, even distaste for, scientific fact and theory, despite their indebtedness to it. Most of this chapter is devoted to close readings of “nature writing” by the contemporary authors Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman, David Abram, Richard Nelson, and Barry Lopez. It reviews the claims ecocritics have made about their work, especially its emphasis on awareness of and contact with nature; its privileging of immediate sensory experience; its dabbling in phenomenology and transcendentalism; and its discomfort with the pitfalls of language and the plight of the individual self in a natural world seen as alien.Less
This chapter offers a sustained discussion of American “nature writing” which in the narrow sense of the term refers to a nonfiction prose essay describing its author's efforts to establish an emotional connection with the natural world, efforts which as a rule are undertaken during an excursion into the wild. That so much “nature writing” follows this pattern suggests that it is conventional rather than wholly or even partially “natural”, as some ecocritics have claimed it is, thereby implicitly contradicting their own identification of its typical features as traditional. “Nature writing” of the conventional kind can be distinguished from natural history, in which the subjective experience of the author is less important, which is less belletristic, and which is comfortable with scientific fact and theory. By contrast, “nature writing” is self-consciously literary; its authors incline to mysticism, often courting epiphany and revelation in natural settings; and they frequently display impatience with, even distaste for, scientific fact and theory, despite their indebtedness to it. Most of this chapter is devoted to close readings of “nature writing” by the contemporary authors Annie Dillard, Diane Ackerman, David Abram, Richard Nelson, and Barry Lopez. It reviews the claims ecocritics have made about their work, especially its emphasis on awareness of and contact with nature; its privileging of immediate sensory experience; its dabbling in phenomenology and transcendentalism; and its discomfort with the pitfalls of language and the plight of the individual self in a natural world seen as alien.
Norman A. Johnson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195306750
- eISBN:
- 9780199790203
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306750.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
Some six million years ago, two branches of the evolutionary tree diverged: one that led to chimpanzees and bonobos, and one that led to us. Extraordinary advances in our ability to obtain and ...
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Some six million years ago, two branches of the evolutionary tree diverged: one that led to chimpanzees and bonobos, and one that led to us. Extraordinary advances in our ability to obtain and process DNA sequence information permits scientists to address fundamental questions about the evolutionary histories of varied species, including our own. Ascertaining the sequence of the genome — the complete complement of DNA information — from both humans and chimpanzees allows scientists to address such questions as: which genes were subjected to natural selection along our evolutionary branch? Are these the genetic changes that made us human? The book addresses these and other questions about human evolutionary history, including our domestication of other animals and of plants. It also explores how researchers use the tools of molecular genetics and population genetics theory to unravel the secrets of the natural histories of genes and genomes. Much like detectives looking to ascertain the circumstances behind a crime, these scientists can develop and test inferences about the nature of the natural selection and other evolutionary pressures that have shaped the organisms that harbor these genes.Less
Some six million years ago, two branches of the evolutionary tree diverged: one that led to chimpanzees and bonobos, and one that led to us. Extraordinary advances in our ability to obtain and process DNA sequence information permits scientists to address fundamental questions about the evolutionary histories of varied species, including our own. Ascertaining the sequence of the genome — the complete complement of DNA information — from both humans and chimpanzees allows scientists to address such questions as: which genes were subjected to natural selection along our evolutionary branch? Are these the genetic changes that made us human? The book addresses these and other questions about human evolutionary history, including our domestication of other animals and of plants. It also explores how researchers use the tools of molecular genetics and population genetics theory to unravel the secrets of the natural histories of genes and genomes. Much like detectives looking to ascertain the circumstances behind a crime, these scientists can develop and test inferences about the nature of the natural selection and other evolutionary pressures that have shaped the organisms that harbor these genes.
Stephen Gaukroger
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199594931
- eISBN:
- 9780191595745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594931.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science, General
Mid‐eighteenth century studies of electricity and chemistry encouraged an understanding of matter as something active, but they were unable to offer any account of what this activity was in general ...
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Mid‐eighteenth century studies of electricity and chemistry encouraged an understanding of matter as something active, but they were unable to offer any account of what this activity was in general terms, and to what extent it characterized matter beyond the local phenomena that these disciplines studied. A general account of the activity of matter was needed if there was to be a hope of replacing what many considered the now defunct mechanist model. Such a general account emerged in natural history in the 1740s, as it became transformed, especially in the work of Buffon, into a powerful, large‐scale form of natural philosophy in which matter as conceived by mechanists became merely a sub‐species when matter was construed in its most general terms. With Buffon, a developmental understanding of matter emerges.Less
Mid‐eighteenth century studies of electricity and chemistry encouraged an understanding of matter as something active, but they were unable to offer any account of what this activity was in general terms, and to what extent it characterized matter beyond the local phenomena that these disciplines studied. A general account of the activity of matter was needed if there was to be a hope of replacing what many considered the now defunct mechanist model. Such a general account emerged in natural history in the 1740s, as it became transformed, especially in the work of Buffon, into a powerful, large‐scale form of natural philosophy in which matter as conceived by mechanists became merely a sub‐species when matter was construed in its most general terms. With Buffon, a developmental understanding of matter emerges.
Judy Diamond and Patrick Kociolek
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199730421
- eISBN:
- 9780199949557
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199730421.003.0016
- Subject:
- Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Of any public institution, natural history museums have the most extensive intellectual and physical resources for teaching the public about evolution. This chapter traces how evolution exhibits in ...
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Of any public institution, natural history museums have the most extensive intellectual and physical resources for teaching the public about evolution. This chapter traces how evolution exhibits in natural history museums have changed over the past century from displays based on collections of biological diversity to experiential teaching units that focus on processes and mechanisms of evolution that are based on contemporary research findings. To assess how well these efforts help people understand evolution will require a significant commitment to experimentally-based learning research to determine how to create meaningful educational change through the experience of visiting exhibits.Less
Of any public institution, natural history museums have the most extensive intellectual and physical resources for teaching the public about evolution. This chapter traces how evolution exhibits in natural history museums have changed over the past century from displays based on collections of biological diversity to experiential teaching units that focus on processes and mechanisms of evolution that are based on contemporary research findings. To assess how well these efforts help people understand evolution will require a significant commitment to experimentally-based learning research to determine how to create meaningful educational change through the experience of visiting exhibits.
Nicholas Halmi
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199212415
- eISBN:
- 9780191707223
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212415.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter argues that the Enlightenment in its multiplicity made the Romantic concept of a universal and inherently meaningful symbolism not only intellectually desirable, but philosophically ...
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This chapter argues that the Enlightenment in its multiplicity made the Romantic concept of a universal and inherently meaningful symbolism not only intellectually desirable, but philosophically possible. Four developments, each entailing in its way a rejection of dualism, were crucial: (1) the non-subjectivist recuperation of sensible intuition in the disciplines comprising ‘ natural history’; (2) the interpretation of humanity's cognitive relation to nature in terms of a microcosm-macrocosm analogy; (3) the increased acceptance of metaphysical monism after the reported affirmation of Spinoza's philosophy by the much-admired Lessing; and (4) the replacement of mechanistic with vitalist theories of matter in the later 18th century. These developments were not necessarily compatible with each other: vitalism, for example, rejected the mechanistic concepts that Spinoza applied more rigorously and comprehensively than anyone else. But by a process of syncretic assimilation the Romantics, especially Schelling (with active encouragement from Goethe), undertook to develop out of the various anti-dualist tendencies in Enlightenment thought ‘a markedly unified interpretation of matter and spirit, of nature and history, as elements of a single ascending process’ — in short, the Naturphilosophie on which the claims for the symbol would be based.Less
This chapter argues that the Enlightenment in its multiplicity made the Romantic concept of a universal and inherently meaningful symbolism not only intellectually desirable, but philosophically possible. Four developments, each entailing in its way a rejection of dualism, were crucial: (1) the non-subjectivist recuperation of sensible intuition in the disciplines comprising ‘ natural history’; (2) the interpretation of humanity's cognitive relation to nature in terms of a microcosm-macrocosm analogy; (3) the increased acceptance of metaphysical monism after the reported affirmation of Spinoza's philosophy by the much-admired Lessing; and (4) the replacement of mechanistic with vitalist theories of matter in the later 18th century. These developments were not necessarily compatible with each other: vitalism, for example, rejected the mechanistic concepts that Spinoza applied more rigorously and comprehensively than anyone else. But by a process of syncretic assimilation the Romantics, especially Schelling (with active encouragement from Goethe), undertook to develop out of the various anti-dualist tendencies in Enlightenment thought ‘a markedly unified interpretation of matter and spirit, of nature and history, as elements of a single ascending process’ — in short, the Naturphilosophie on which the claims for the symbol would be based.
Peter R. Anstey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199589777
- eISBN:
- 9780191725487
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199589777.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter argues that, given our lack of epistemic access to the inner natures of substances, Locke believed that the correct method of natural philosophy is the construction of Baconian natural ...
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This chapter argues that, given our lack of epistemic access to the inner natures of substances, Locke believed that the correct method of natural philosophy is the construction of Baconian natural histories. The evidence adduced for this claim includes Locke's involvement with Robert Boyle's natural histories; his interest in travel literature; his lists of queries; his emphasis on natural histories of disease; and his various divisions of the sciences.Less
This chapter argues that, given our lack of epistemic access to the inner natures of substances, Locke believed that the correct method of natural philosophy is the construction of Baconian natural histories. The evidence adduced for this claim includes Locke's involvement with Robert Boyle's natural histories; his interest in travel literature; his lists of queries; his emphasis on natural histories of disease; and his various divisions of the sciences.
