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Worlds in Collision: Owen and Huxley on the Brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

C.U.M. Smith
C.U.M. Smith
Affiliation:
Vision Sciences Aston University, Birmingham
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Abstract

This paper makes use of the 1860 clash between T. H. Huxley and Richard Owen to examine the role of social context in scientific advance in the biological sciences. It shows how the social context of nineteenth-century England first favored the Coleridge-Owenite interpretation of the biological world and then, at mid-century and subsequently, allowed the Darwin-Huxley interpretation to win through. It emphasizes the complexity of the clash. Professional, personal, and generational agendas as well as scientific theory and fundamental philosophical intuition were at stake. The history, ultimately, provides a useful instance of Schutz ‘s and Scheler ‘s concept of societal factors controlling and selecting between flows of idealfactoren. Although Huxley is conventionally regarded as the victor I conclude by suggesting that the issue is not yet closed and that profound philosophical issues remain unresolved.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Summer 1997 , pp. 343 - 365
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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