Dando a Darwin um enterro decente!

terça-feira, junho 05, 2007

Eu fui ateu e marxista-leninista. Hoje, não tenho mais fé cega no ateísmo materialista. Nem nos dogmas a priori da teoria geral da evolução. Se eu ainda fosse ateu, e fizesse alguma coisa realmente importante para humanidade, eu me sentiria (???) desconfortável se fosse enterrado lá na Catedral da Sé em São Paulo.

Gente, mas é justamente esta a situação de Darwin − um agnóstico declarado, mas que ao morrer contou com o “jeitinho brasileiro”, oops inglês de Thomas Huxley et al para enterrá-lo junto a Isaac Newton, um cientista teísta (argh, Darwin, isso é como violar o seu túmulo). Ele deve estar se revirando e bufando de raiva de Huxley por estar enterrado ao lado de tão honrosa companhia, mas conseguida pelas artimanhas de seu fiel escudeiro.

Gente, Huxley enxergou o futuro bem longe: é preciso cooptar os de concepções religiosas a ficar do lado de Darwin, pois ele é um crente fiel enterrado na Abadia de Westminster. Nada mais falso, grotesco e surrealista. Darwin, eu vou ficar devendo esta para você, mas se eu pudesse, tiraria você desse lugar religioso horrível responsável por todo o ódio e matança na humanidade. (Obrigado, Dawkins). O agnosticismo é uma rejeição elegante de Deus, mas é rejeição.

Bem, finalmente parece que Darwin vai ter um enterro decente e digno de um verdadeiro agnóstico: no dia 5 de setembro de 2007, às 11:00, em Leeds, Inglaterra. O discurso fúnebre será proferido pelo Dr. Steve Fuller, da University of Warwick.

Gente, calma. Especialmente a galera dos meninos e meninas de Darwin. eu explico. Ele não será exumado literalmente, mas será dissecado numa palestra acadêmica intitulada “Dando um enterro decente a Darwin”.

Para os interessados, e que têm condições materiais de ir, eis o programa da conferência “DARWINISM AFTER DARWIN: NEW HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES” [Darwinismo após Darwin: novas perspectivas históricas] University of Leeds 3rd-5th September, 2007


Monday 3rd September

1.00 Welcome

1.10 Histories

Science and the life story: the historical development of biographies of Darwin Suzanne Gapps, University of Western Sydney

A lesson from the past: how biologists use history Graeme Beale, Edinburgh University

Historiographical constraints: the divergence of conceptualisations of 'inheritance of acquired characteristics' Fern Elsdon-Baker, University of Leeds

"Sure, we know all that…": dealing with popular Darwin myths Peter C. Kjærgaard, University of Aarhus

3.10 Tea/Coffee

3.40 Religion

Paley evolving: natural theologies in the post-Darwinian nineteenth century Richard England, Salisbury University, USA

The un-heretical Christian: Lynn Harold Hough, Darwinism and Christianity in 1920s America Dawn Mooney Digrius, Drew University, New Jersey

Arguing from the evidence: the correct approach to Intelligent Design and the U.S. courts Brian Thomasson, University of California

5.10 Break

5.30 Depart for main University of Leeds campus

6.00 PUBLIC EVENT From Darwin to Hitler: author meets critics

Richard Weikart responds to critics of his work. Participants include Staffan Mueller-Wille (University Of Exeter), Steve Fuller (University of Warwick), and John Harwood (University of Manchester)

7.30 Drinks reception, and dinner for conference delegates

****
Tuesday 4th September

9.00 Bodies

Rational evolution? Sexual selection in animals & humans, 1915-1935 Erika Lorraine Milam, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Boas at the Darwin centenary
Greg Radick, University of Leeds

Darwin at Cold Spring Harbor: the new synthesis tackles human evolution Jessie Richmond, University of Leeds

10.30 Tea/Coffee

11.00 Latin America Darwinism on the other side of the Atlantic: race and scientific racism in Latin America

Science, modernity, and evolution: British scientific travellers in Latin America in the late-19th and early-20th centuries John Fisher University of Liverpool

Darwinisme et régénérescence au Mexique au XIX siècle Sonia Lozano, Centre de Recherche Médecine, Sciences, Santé et Société (CERMES), Paris

The transmission of scientific knowledge to Latin America: uses and misuses of Darwinism in Mexico in the XIX Century Natalia Priego, Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool

12.30 Cyberspace

How Darwin Online can suggest new historical perspectives John van Wyhe, University of Cambridge

1.00 Lunch


2.00 Case studies

The biogeography of power: August Weismann, acclimatization, and the German Empire Adam Christopher Lawrence, University of California

From Haeckel with love: Lennart Nilsson's morphed embryos and the cultural loops of Darwinism Solveig Jülich, Stockholm University

"The Armageddon of the future": racial poisoning and the Victorian laboratory James Wood, University of Edinburgh

3.25 - 3.35 Break

Eugenics in 1921: a comparison
Hiram Caton, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

Communist reception of Darwin: postwar East Germany and Czechoslovakia in comparison, 1945-1965 Uwe Hossfeld , Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Michal Simunek and Tomas Hermann, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

4.30 Tea/Coffee

5.00 The Arts

Darwinism and contemporary poetry
John Holmes, University of Reading

The Thinking Path
Shirley Chubb

6.00 Break

6.15 Keynote Address

[Title TBC]
Peter Bowler, Queen's University Belfast


7.30 Conference Dinner

****
Wednesday 5th September

9.00 Mind

Why doing history is like remembering: the implications of neo-Darwinian philosophies of consciousness for the practice of history Francis Neary, CHSTM, University of Manchester

Resolving the "Darwinian paradox": Lionel Penrose and the genetics of mental ability, deficiency and disease Edmund Ramsden, London School of Economics

[Title TBC]
Fabio Zampieri, Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, UCL

10.30 Coffee/Tea

11.00 Society

Ignorance of natural selection in the social sciences John Z. Langrish

Darwin, evolution and late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British sociology Chris Renwick, University of Leeds

Giving Darwin a decent burial
Steve Fuller, University of Warwick

1.00 Lunch

2.00 Round Table Discussion

Darwinism after Darwin: new historical perspectives Participants: Joe Cain
(UCL) , Staffan Müller-Wille (University of Exeter), Greg Radick (University of Leeds), Jon Hodge (University of Leeds).

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REGISTRATION DETAILS will be available soon at
http://www.darwinismafterdarwin.com

Please send any queries to Fern Elsdon-Baker, fernelsdon_baker@yahoo.co.uk

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Finalmente RIP, DARWIN!