a new direction

Dr. Caruso’s posts have shown me a new side of Evolutionary thought.  This, combined with the daily reading I am now doing, and so on … leads me to think of this course differently. 

One of my great concerns has been finding an intersection between literature and science – there is only so much scientific history to be taught, and there is a wealth of literature that reflects the thinking of evolution at the time.  I’m not certain there is a good parallel of topics that can encompass the breadth of evolutionary history.

What if, instead, we just approach evolution as a thought process? Evolution is occuring all the time – not just in literature, not just in nature, but also in society, in humanity, in social mores, in weaponry, etc etc.

My original thought was that we would set up the course thus:  begin with the biological definition of evolution, and the history of that theory, and then move on to explore the literature of the era. 

But I think there is so much more involved.  We need to understand the roots of evolution, the soul, the essential makeup of this theory.

What if we start off thinking of examples of well known people or ideas or such, and the way that they have evolved into what, or who, they are?

Keep in mind, Darwin might not have even put together his data and thought processes into the theory of evolution, were it not for work in other fields.  Particularly, the work of geologists such as Cuvier were influential.  But essential parts of the theory may never have come about, had Darwin not read Thomas Robert Malthus, who published his theories in economics three decades prior to Darwin’s fated voyage on the HMS Beagle.