1/15/2024 0 Comments Alfred russel wallace seminal workPlurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant. Alfred Russel Wallace,” An interview by Albert Dawson printed in The Christian Commonwealth of 10 December 1903. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ĭavies, P. The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell. “Life in the Universe,” Edinburgh Review, 200, p. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Ĭlerke, A. Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature. Confrontation of Cosmological Theories with Observational Data (Dordrecht, 1974), 291–298.Ĭhaisson, E. “Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in cosmology,” in M. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution. New York: Oxford University Pressīehe, M. New York: Cambridge University Press.īarrow, J. And the considerable reaction to those works reveal how others viewed Wallace and his worldview, both in it terrestrial and extraterrestrial aspects.Īllen, G. Taken together, these works tell us about Wallace’s views of the universe and its relation to humans, placing his better-known work in a much broader context. In accordance with the worldview expressed there, in 1907 Wallace also wrote a more narrowly focused book on the habitability of Mars. Published in 1903, that book sheds unique light on Wallace’s anthropocentric worldview, and illuminates his entire career, including his belief that the human mind must be set off from animals in the evolutionary process. These ideas would culminate with his book Man’s Place in the Universe : A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds. In part the answer to these questions is to be found in Wallace’s ideas on purpose in the universe, ideas that relate to what we would today call anthropic reasoning and intelligent design. This raises interesting questions for the historian of science: Were Wallace’s astronomical views incidental or fundamental to his life and thought? If the former, why did he write those books? And if the latter, just how did his astronomical ideas fit into his own worldview? And did the influence in developing his worldview go from astronomy to biology or from biology to astronomy? So it comes as a surprise to many to learn that he had an early interest in astronomy, remained “deeply interested” in astronomical discoveries throughout his life, and late in life wrote two books on one of the most sensational and important aspects of the subject-life on other worlds. Alfred Russel Wallace is best known for his work as a naturalist and evolutionist, and for his general interest in life on Earth, taking “life” in the broadest sense of the word to include both biology and culture.
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