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Rated 5 out of 5 by Emmett from Not what I expected I expected a point by point technical evaluation of the Darwinian perspective. The course is much more than that. Prof Gregory provides the technical evaluation, but does so in context, in fact in several contexts. Nearly all of what I have to say has already been said in the most helpful positive reviews, so I won't repeat it here.

Date published: 2022-10-04

Rated 2 out of 5 by gillianerin from Never got into it I should have loved this course - I studied biology - and loved evolution in particular- I love history. I just never really got into this course. The author is very knowledgeable but never really grabbed my attention. In the end, it was a real slog for me to get through.

Date published: 2022-05-20

Rated 5 out of 5 by Salubria1 from Great example of critical thinking I love this professor. He does not view his subject in a scientific vacuum. With critical thinking, he explores the topic through the eyes of so many disciplines: philosophy, history, sociology, religion, as well as science. I would love to have more classes by this professor.

Date published: 2022-03-05

Rated 4 out of 5 by Alanus from I found this useful as I learnt a lot new about Darwin and the time of his work and ideas.

Date published: 2021-10-31

Rated 5 out of 5 by JDAWG from Time well spent! Professor Gregory has given us a crown jewel of teaching in this course. Like a fine cut diamond, his lectures shed light in many directions on theories of evolution and the real-life challenges they have placed in the path of humankind over the centuries. His scholarship and his teaching abilities are superb and his lectures delightful and, at times, profound. The lecture contents are a distillation of a joyful and scholarly life and should be part of a permanent roster of the best Great Courses.

Date published: 2021-03-03

Rated 5 out of 5 by Anonymous from Good History Course I think some viewers might have been expecting the course to be more science and less history/sociology. For them, it would be disappointing. I like the way Gregory presents the background science, and, being familiar with the topic, I didn't need more scientific content. As for the impact on history and human interactions, I think it was excellent. He straight-forward presentation style is good for me, and I think he provided a balanced view of the complexities the topic brought to the sciences, education, and politics.

Date published: 2020-09-04

Rated 4 out of 5 by tonio250 from well done basics Professor Gregory presented a well organized, coherent chronological history of the evolution of the idea of Evolution; I hadn't realized the debates surrounding the validity of Natural Selection and I'm still confused with the importance of small variations but the course exceeded my expectations of what I would learn from it.

Date published: 2020-08-22

Rated 4 out of 5 by Rob Squires from A Fair-mined overview of Darwinism This course provides a great overview of the history and development of the Theory of Evolution, starting off with natural philosophers prior to Darwin and working its way to the 21st century. It touches upon every significant event related to Darwinism along the way: from the Scopes Trial to Intelligent Design (ID). Overall, the author does a commendable job of being balanced and fair-minded. The professor's statement, in his concluding remarks, that metaphysical presuppositions-which are beliefs not founded in science-skew how scientists interpret data, was well articulated. His point that when a popular scientist says something like (not an exact quote): "Reality is only physical, there is no supernatural, that the physical world is eternal, and nothing will ever prove otherwise" then we should realize that this is a statement of belief, not a scientific statement. Now that's a point that a lot of people need to ponder! However, there were a few negative moments when Professor Frederick Gregory's thinking seemed to get sloppy or, if I wanted to be charitable, I'd say his explanation was less than stellar. For example, in the last lecture he says that "most of us probably feel unsure, just like Darwin did. Some even declare uncertainty to be their position-agnosticism. I confess I'm not impressed with that option. I think we ought to try to figure out what we believe, what we're bringing to the table"-as if agnostics don't "try to figure out" what they believe! Indeed they do, but they simply conclude that the so-called proofs are indecisive. The professor is obviously mired in some sloppy thinking here and presents a false dilemma. Lots of agnostics struggle mightily to determine what they believe in regard to various issues, but they're intellectually honest enough to state that they don't believe that the proofs are decisive on either side. The professor goes on to say that "we do want our beliefs to be consistent with the explanations we employ whenever possible, and if we demand that of ourselves-as most of us do-then we're going to have some challenges. One way of handling this is to insist that our explanations are provisional, not final"-which means we recognize the "uncertainty" of our beliefs. Once sentence previous to this statement, he claims that he's "not impressed with that option" and labels it as "agnosticism"-but then goes on to say that "uncertainly" is probably the best way to handle our beliefs. Well that was as clear as mud! Sure, there might be room for further distinctions here, but the professor's simplistic, and seemingly contradictory, statements do a dismal job of making that clear. He's obviously fallen into the common trap of viewing "agnosticism" as indecisiveness rather than as the intellectually honest position that it often represents. That having been said, Professor Frederick Gregory's explanation of why Intelligent Design (ID) is not science, is solid. He explains: "I say ID is not science because the intelligent cause it infers is not testable. We can't find out if it works or not…or discard it if we find out something better. We can't do anything with it…In fact, it stops things in their tracks-and that's what bothers many scientists about ID. It seems to stop our explanations about how the world works." That's exactly right, and the reason why ID has no business being taught in a biology class. If people want an overview of ID-which is simply Creationism masquerading under another name-included in comparative religion or philosophy classes, I'm fine with that. But if that is done for the sake of "balance," then how many other pseudo-scientific and crack-pot theories are we also going to include? Food for thought.

Date published: 2020-08-16

Overview

Charles Darwin's theories on natural selection rank with those of Copernicus and Newton for their iconic stature in science. In The Darwinian Revolution, explore the remarkable story of Darwin's ideas, how scientists and religious leaders reacted to them, and the resulting sea change in human thought. In these 24 absorbing lectures taught by award-winning Professor Frederick Gregory, learn how a strikingly original scientific concept can break the boundaries of its discipline and influence society at large&;amp;-in religion, politics, philosophy, and other spheres. By the conclusion, you'll realize the truly astounding implications of this provocative theory on all aspects of human life.

About

Frederick Gregory

History of science has taught me that scientists remain very human as they strive to be objective. Overcoming personal differences, so vital to our ultimate survival, is as much a challenge for them as it is in politics or religion.

ALMA MATER

Harvard University

INSTITUTION

University of Florida

Dr. Frederick Gregory is Professor of History of Science at the University of Florida, where he has taught for 30 years. He holds a B.S. in Mathematics from Wheaton College in Illinois, a B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an M.A. in the History of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Harvard University. Professor Gregory has received numerous grants for research in his field, including an Alexander von Humboldt grant from the German government and a fellowship from the Dibner Institute for the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was awarded the 2009 Joseph H. Hazen Education Prize for excellence in education from the History of Science Society. He also won the University of Florida's John Mahon Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, as well as the Norman Wilensky Graduate Teaching Award. He has provided commentary for the American production of the television series The Day the Universe Changed. Professor Gregory's research interests have focused on German science in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly as it reflects the larger cultural setting in which it is embedded. His two-volume undergraduate textbook, Natural Science in Western History, was published in 2008.

By This Professor

01: The Meaning of Evolution

Why was Darwin so revolutionary and why does he remain so? His breakthrough was not in introducing the idea of evolution, which had long been debated, but in proposing how evolution occurs. In this lecture, you survey these and other themes that are developed in the course.

33 min

02: The Way It Used to Be

This lecture examines the traditional worldview in the West, which was based on the biblical account of creation, fixed by one 17th-century scholar at 4004 B.C. An allied idea was the Great Chain of Being, pictured as an immutable scale of life forms from the most primitive to God himself.

30 min

03: Theories of Evolution in the 18th Century

You study three 18th-century thinkers: Benoît de Maillet, who estimated the cosmos to be billions of years old; Georges Buffon, who believed that living things descended from more primal forms; and Pierre Simon Laplace, who proposed a developmental theory for the formation of the solar system.

30 min

04: Fossils and Catastrophism

At the end of the 18th century, fossils were not necessarily regarded as actual remains of living things. You learn that they became central to the work of Georges Cuvier, who connected fossils to extinct species, which he believed had died out in violent catastrophes.

31 min

05: Theories of Evolution Just before Darwin

The idea of evolution was in the air by the early 19th century. This lecture looks at precursors to Darwin, including Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who wrote a systematic account of the evolution of species over time and proposed that acquired characteristics can be inherited.

30 min

06: Why Evolution Was Rejected before Darwin

You investigate the dubious status of evolutionary ideas in the years before Darwin's book. Among the objections: Evolution challenged the Bible and lacked convincing empirical support. Some critics even classed evolution with fringe ideas such as Mesmerism and phrenology.

31 min

07: Darwin's Conversion to Evolution

The young Darwin's intention to join the ministry was interrupted by an offer to travel around the world as a naturalist aboard HMSBeagle. The experience changed his life, giving him a growing conviction that species had altered over time, a conclusion he kept largely to himself.

31 min

08: What's in On the Origin of Species?

Darwin spent two decades developing his theory of evolution through natural selection. You learn how he was rushed to publish prematurely by the independent discovery of the same principle by Alfred Russel Wallace. Yet Darwin's book On the Origin of Speciesis a masterful statement of his idea.

30 min

09: How Origin Fared among Scientists

Even as Darwin's book stimulated greater acceptance of the idea of evolution, scientists criticized his specific mechanism, natural selection. This separation of the general notion of evolution from the means by which it occurs has permitted Darwinism to mean different things to different people ever since.

30 min

10: The Religious Reaction to Darwinism

This lecture explores the religious response to Darwin's theory. Some argued that natural selection was tantamount to atheism, raising an issue that endures to the present day. Others reinterpreted natural selection to make it compatible with a belief in God. Still others completely separated science from religion.

30 min

11: The Social Implications of Evolution

Those who accepted evolution in the 19th century generally considered it a purposeful or goal-directed process, rejecting the random variation of natural selection. You explore how such an understanding influenced Herbert Spencer's social philosophy of the survival of the fittest.

31 min

12: Evolution and Heredity

You examine the difficulty that evolutionary theory faced in showing its compatibility with a theory of heredity. Darwin proposed a particulate theory of heredity, called pangenesis. Meanwhile, Gregor Mendel, an obscure Austrian monk, developed a powerful hereditary theory based on his experiments with pea plants.

30 min

13: A Nadir for Natural Selection

In the early 1900s, Darwin's theory was in eclipse as its two fundamental tenets—selection and small variations—were rejected by a majority of scientists. You also see how Mendel's rediscovered work was interpreted as further evidence against natural selection.

31 min

14: Groundwork for Recovery

This lecture discusses how developments in cell biology in the early 20th century clarified the process of heredity, showing that small changes in chromosomes were responsible for determining larger characteristics of organisms. This hinted that Darwin had been correct to focus on small continuous variations.

30 min

15: Human Evolution

Darwin did not deal with the explosive issue of human evolution in Origin, but others were quick to see the implications of natural selection for the question of human origins. You learn how the discovery of Neanderthal remains and other humanlike fossils fed the controversy.

30 min

16: The Scopes Trial

This lecture investigates fact and fiction in the famous Scopes antievolution trial in 1925. Supposedly, teacher John Scopes was persecuted, attorney Clarence Darrow rose to Scopes's defense and defeated prosecutor William Jennings Bryan, and the antievolution movement was discredited. There are problems with all three statements.

30 min

17: Lamarckian Inheritance on Stage

Two controversies in the 20th century show the staying power of Lamarck's theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. In Austria, biologist Paul Kammerer claimed that bodily changes in amphibians were heritable. In the Soviet Union, agronomist T. D. Lysenko made a similar claim about food crops.

30 min

18: Forging an Evolutionary Synthesis

You learn how the work of population geneticists, field naturalists, and paleontologists in the early 20th century led to an evolutionary synthesis that recognized Darwin's theory of natural selection as the major agent of evolution. Factors such as Lamarckian inheritance were rejected.

30 min

19: Evolution and Molecular Biology

The new science of molecular biology added stunning evidence for Darwin's theory with the discovery of DNA as the carrier of genetic information. The decoding of DNA's double-helical structure by Francis Crick and James Watson shed new light on the origin of the minute variations responsible for natural selection.

30 min

20: The Rise of Biblical Creationism

This lecture examines the backlash against evolution by American evangelicals, who came up with increasingly sophisticated attacks on Darwinism to defend the biblical account of creation. Their tactics led to an alternative explanation of the origin of life, called "scientific creationism."

31 min

21: Tinkering with Evolutionary Theory

Altruistic behavior poses a problem for natural selection at the level of individuals. Therefore some scientists have theorized that selection acts on groups or even on individual genes. You investigate these proposals and also the field of sociobiology, which sees a Darwinian component to human social behavior.

30 min

22: The Heritage of Eugenics

You learn how evolution has inspired controversial ideas such as eugenics—the study of improving human heredity through controlled selective breeding. Eugenics led to restrictive marriage laws and forced sterilization in the United States and to mass euthanasia in Nazi Germany.

30 min

23: Intelligent Design

You see how the classical philosophical argument from design has been restyled "intelligent design" to attack natural selection, leading to a 2005 court case in Dover, Pennsylvania. The trial ended in an adverse ruling against a school that sought to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.

30 min

24: Adding Things Up

In this final lecture, you take stock of the Darwinian revolution and some of the scientific, philosophical, and religious reactions to it. An analysis of these issues illuminates the difference between metaphysical beliefs and scientific explanations, and how they are inextricably linked when it comes to interpreting Darwin.

30 min