Metaphysics, Materialism, and the Evolution of Mind: The Early Writings of Charles Darwin

by Charles Darwin, Howard E. Gruber (Commentaries by), Paul H. Barrett (Noted by)

Overview

First published in 1974 as a companion volume to Darwin on Man by Howard E. Gruber, Paul Barrett’s transcriptions of Darwin’s M and N notebooks served to shed new light on the evolutionist’s methods and motivation.

According to Stephen Jay Gould in the New York Times Book Review, “Darwin kept [these notebooks] primarily in 1838, when he was 29 years old. In them, he recorded his early conviction of evolutionary continuity between humans and all other animals. . . . These notebooks display all the features of humanistic intellect that his detractors denied. We find erudition in his comments on Plato, Locke, Hume, Adam Smith, Whewell, Burke, Montaigne, Lessing and Spencer. . . . We appreciate an artistic bent in his delight with nature and her prophet Wordsworth. . . . We grasp the breadth of his bold attempt to clothe all human thought and behaviour in a new evolutionary garb. . . . Charles Darwin was reconstructing the world and he knew exactly what he was doing.” 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226136592
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	11/23/2011
Edition description:	Subsequent
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Paul H. Barrett was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, and editor of The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was an English naturalist whose writings on evolution are considered some of the most influential work in the history of modern science.

Date of Birth:

February 12, 1809

Date of Death:

April 19, 1882

Place of Birth:

Shrewsbury, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

B.A. in Theology, Christ¿s College, Cambridge University, 1831

Table of Contents

ABBREVIATIONS

CHRONOLOGY

PREFACE TO THE PHOENIX EDITION

PART I Previously Unpublished Manuscripts of Charles Darwin

The Notebooks on Man, Mind and Materialism:
M Notebook
N Notebook
Old and Useless Notes
Essay on Theology and Natural Selection
Questions for Mr. Wynne

PART II Selections from Previously Published Writings of Charles Darwin

From the Beagle Diary
Extracts from the B-C-D-E Transmutation Notebooks
A Biographical Sketch of an Infant

APPENDIXES

A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father
The Suppressed Minutes of the Plinian Society Meeting of March  27, 1827

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX