Man's Place in Nature

by Thomas Henry Huxley

Known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his impassioned defense of evolutionary theory, Thomas Huxley published this, his most famous book, just a few years after Darwin's The Origin of the Species. Unlike Origin, this book focuses on human ancestry and offers a concise, nontechnical survey of the state of mid-nineteenth-century knowledge about primate and human paleontology and ethology. Man's Place in Nature concurs with Darwin's assertion of the absence of a physiologic and psychic structural line of demarcation between humans and apes. Huxley ventures further than Darwin, however, by making the first attempt to apply the principles of evolution directly to the human race (an issue that Darwin skirted). Despite Huxley's acknowledgements of the wide gulf represented by the human capacity for rational speech and language, some Victorian readers were scandalized by the application of Darwinian theory to humans and by Huxley's evidence of the fundamental similarities between the human brain and the ape brain.A landmark of scientific progress, this immensely readable book reflects the stylistic gifts that made its author a popular public speaker.

Genres: Science, Biology, Evolution, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Anthropology, Nature

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1863

About the author

Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS HonFRSE FLS was an English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy. He has become known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

In 1825, Thomas Henry Huxley was born in England. Huxley coined the term "agnostic" (although George Holyoake also claimed that honor). Huxley defined agnosticism as a method, "the essence of which lies in the rigorous application of a single principle . . . the axiom that every man should be able to give a reason for the faith that is in him." Huxley elaborated: "In matters of the intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without any other consideration. And negatively, in matters of the intellect do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable" (from his essay "Agnosticism").

Huxley received his medical degree from Charing Cross School of Medicine, becoming a physiologist, and was awarded many other honorary degrees. He spent his youth exploring science, especially zoology and anatomy, lecturing on natural history, and writing for scientific publications. He was president of the Royal Society, and was elected to the London School Board in 1870, where he championed a number of common-sense reforms. Huxley earned the nickname "Darwin's Bulldog" when he debated Darwin's On the Origin of Species with Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in Oxford in 1860. When Wilberforce asked him which side of his family contained the ape, Huxley famously replied that he would prefer to descend from an ape than a human being who used his intellect "for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into grave scientific discussion." Thereafter, Huxley devoted his time to the defense of science over religion. His essays included "Agnosticism and Christianity" (1889). His three rationalist grandsons were Sir Julian Huxley, a biologist, novelist Aldous Huxley, and Andrew Huxley, co-winner of a 1963 Nobel Prize. Huxley, appropriately, received the Darwin Medal in 1894. D. 1895.

More: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=2093

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...

http://www.iep.utm.edu/huxley/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/lib...

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/ev...

Reviews

[Karen Perham-Lippman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually have a International Science Library printing from January 1863. The binding is a little loose, but book is in fairly good condition.

History is so awesome. Especially when it is about science.

[Whitney Borup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew. That's a lot of measurements.

[F S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and educational!

[P.S. Winn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read that adds to Darwin's theories. For me though, I would love to see science and religion join together and explain how God and Man can both be responsible for why we are here.

[Nasser · Rating 2 out of 5]

صرّح هيكسلي في هذا الكتاب بما لم يقدر داروين على التصريح به في هذا الكتاب بأن الانسان ترقّى وتطوّر من مخلوقات أدنى منه ، شجاعة وإيمان بالنظرية