====================== HES POSTING ===================== Greg Ransom mentioned Ernst Mayr's _One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought_, and noted that it provides: > 'augmentations' of Darwin's > argument and reconstructions of it, pushing forward 'particular approaches' > in different directions, and engaging in a good deal of what might > correctly be labeled 'advocacy'. If you wanted to, you might even call > it 'Whig' history. > > Is there anyone who hasn't understood Darwin, and the history of Darwin's > biology better after reading these books, or its place in intellectual > history? Having read Mayr's book and learned a lot of biological theory from it, perhaps I can comment on the relation between it and the current discussion on Whig history. I read Mayr's book to be introduced to the central arguments of Darwinian biology in order to converse better with my friends in biology. I did not read it for its historical treatment of Darwinism, and in fact was disappointed at several points with its disregard of particular historical issues I was interested in (specifically, my questions about the relation between Malthus and Darwin in the context of Victorian culture, and the relation between Darwinian biology and social science in the context of the interwar culture, were left unanswered--but that's okay, because I didn't expect Mayr to be asking the same kinds of questions I do). In this regard, the book functioned for me in a manner similar to MacIntyre's _After Virtue_, although Mayr has less problems with the dominant mode of Darwinian thought than MacIntyre does with the dominant mode of ethical thought. The point I am trying to make is this: both books are contributions to our understanding of theory. As such, they draw upon both historical work and contemporary theoretical work in order to re-cast the fundamental questions of their discipline today. THIS IS A PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE EXERCISE, in fact, it is a necessary exercise occasionally in every discipline. The exercise of recasting our fundamental questions is not Whiggish (i.e., it is not simply the ratification of current theory), but it also fits neither the categories of rational reconstruction or historical reconstruction. Richard Rorty calls it _geistesgeschichte_, which for lack of a better term is the term I use. Two points I want to make: 1. _Geistesgeschichten_ are a necessary part of the re-formulation of traditions (interpretative communities, if you will) in almost every generation. By re-casting the tradition's fundamental questions, they prevent "normal discourse" (similar to Kuhn's "normal science") from becoming stale and assist newcomers in placing themselves in the tradition's conversation. Many historians of economic thought aspire to writing _geistesgeschichten_, and as such are simply participating in the re-casting of the fundamental questions of the scientific community of economists. None of my comments about the history of economics have been aimed at denying the relevance of this work. I have simply tried to distinguish this work from historical work on economics. 2. Good _geistesgeschichten_ are extraordinarily hard to come by; bad _geistesgeschichten_ are a dime a dozen. What are the criteria for a good _geistesgeschichte_? I don't know. Ross B. Emmett Augustana University College ================= FOOTER TO HES POSTING ================ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]