Dangerous Darwinism

We are concerned with a particular rhetorical narrative that appeared in the early stages of the Darwin debate but that has been fiercely resurgent in the past two decades. Freud wrote of Darwin's theory as one of three major blows to which human vanity had been submitted at the hands of science. Assertions that "Darwin's dangerous idea" came as a horrible shock to the Victorians and that it is still a profound psychological threat, and therefore widely resisted, remain current. When such assertions are offered as the premise on which Darwin is to be approached by the general reader they call for some detailed scrutiny, with regard both to the bases on which they are made, and the effect they have on the terms of public debate. This paper offers a critique of the culture-shock myth based on a re-examination of Victorian reactions to Darwin's work, and on an analysis of the ways in which the myth functions as a rhetorical strategy in our own time.     

“国际科学书系”与达尔文主义的传播

在本文中我考察了“国际科学书系”作为出版界的一个独特的试验,在它存在的过程中是否传播了达尔文主义关于科学与宗教的关系的观念。赫胥黎、丁铎尔、斯宾塞和尤曼斯是国际科学书系创办之初的关键人物,他们都是进化论的自然主义者,对于科学与宗教的关系共同持有一种复杂的看法。虽然国际科学书系最初是一个致力于传播进化论自然主义的出版项目,但我将论证,到19世纪80年代初,当该系列最初的创办者们丧失对它的控制时,一条新的路线方针被建立起来。     

社会达尔文主义:近代中国人的忧虑与抗争

达尔文生物进化论是人类思想史上最伟大的成就之一,但其中的局限性--如"代趋微异"的生物渐变论以及特别是生物界生存竞争、自然选择等规律不正确地在人类社会的应用--被夸大和发挥所形成的所谓"庸俗进化论"和"社会达尔文主义",却是十分有害甚至是反动和反人类的.严复<天演论>,在敲响了祖国危亡警钟的同时,也在一定程度上传播了这些思想.针对庸俗进化论特别是社会达尔文主义的社会危害,近代中国的有识之士如鲁迅、杨其春等人表示了自己的忧虑与抗争.本文在新发现史料的基础上对此进行了分析.     

英语socialscience被误译为“社会科学”导致社会科学是科学和非科学之争

英语naturalscience和socialscience中的两个science字形相同,词义截然不同。naturalscience的science的词义是“科学“．naturalscience因此翻译成“自然科学“完全正确：英语“（natural）science（自然）科学”是“science科学“的简称。英语中．科学指的是自然科学．自然科学即科学。socialsciencea的science的词义不可能是”科学”了．“科学“已经被自然科学独自占用了．将socialscience翻译成“社会科学”,这个“社会科学”的含义就是”社会自然科学“了。把naturalscience和socialscience翻译成”自然科学”和”社会科学”犹如将storybook和notebook翻译成”故事书”和”笔记书“。英语权威词典和百科全书都说socialscience的science的词义是人文社会学中的”学”或“学科”。“学“或“学科”与”科学”是截然不同的两个概念,因此socialscience译成“社会科学”是误译。