Books by Federico Morganti
Che il darwinismo abbia reso più difficile scorgere l’esistenza di un disegno in natura, è un luo... more Che il darwinismo abbia reso più difficile scorgere l’esistenza di un disegno in natura, è un luogo comune entrato ormai a far parte della cultura popolare. Negli ultimi decenni la ricerca storica ha tuttavia mostrato i limiti di una visione che interpreti l’impatto dell’evoluzionismo sulla cultura coeva come semplice rottura con la prospettiva teologico-naturale. Il libro cerca di ricostruire, nella sua complessità, il rapporto tra evoluzionismo e teologia naturale dal più circoscritto punto di vista dei dibattiti sull’origine delle facoltà animali che caratterizzarono il «secolo di Darwin».
Papers by Federico Morganti
In the following note I address the figure of the British theologian and mathematician Baden Powe... more In the following note I address the figure of the British theologian and mathematician Baden Powell (1796-1860), by drawing on an important monograph by Prof. Pietro Corsi recently published in Italian. Powell’s work responded to a cultural strategy of assimilation of philosophical and scientific novelties within a fundamentally conservative view of society. Here, I provide a brief sketch of Powell’s attempt to rethink natural theology in the light of the latest scientific hypotheses, including those regarding the evolution of living beings
In the following paper I provide a brief discussion on Herbert Spencer's treatment of the problem... more In the following paper I provide a brief discussion on Herbert Spencer's treatment of the problem of social change, which was central to his philosophy of society. I contend that, despite some ambivalence, Spencer held a view of society in which human nature is shaped by social institutions, which are in turn the unintended result of the spontaneous interaction between individuals.
faiths but also science and religion. It is suggested that for Spencer the cultural circle of the... more faiths but also science and religion. It is suggested that for Spencer the cultural circle of the «Leader» proved not only as a source of ideas on religious matters, but also a stimulating instance of the beneficial effects which a free discussion even of radical opinions could exercise on the intellectual development of society. Finally, after a survey of the «Leader»'s critical stance on natural theology, Spencer's attitude towards religion and his rationale for religious freedom are linked to his Nonconformist background.
Un'irriducibile pluralità di contesti Darwinismo e religione a partire da una recente monografia ... more Un'irriducibile pluralità di contesti Darwinismo e religione a partire da una recente monografia di David N. Livingstone di ROBERTA PASQUA MOCERINO e FEDERICO MORGANTI 1. Darwinismo e religione
In recent years, Robert M. Young’s well-known description of natural theology as the «common cont... more In recent years, Robert M. Young’s well-known description of natural theology as the «common context» which in early nineteenth-century Britain sanctioned the alliance between science and religion has been questioned in many respects. In what follows, Young’s view is further discussed by focusing on the study of animal faculties. First, I contend that in the first half of the century there could be extensive disagreement over the manner in which the deity governed animal behavior. Secondly, by presenting the perspective of Henry Brougham (1778-
1868) I argue that natural theology was now more willing to ascribe to animals some degree of intelligence. Finally, I provide some considerations on the importance of these developments for the emergence of the evolutionary explanations of animal faculties.
In the following note I address the figure of the British theologian and mathematician Baden Powe... more In the following note I address the figure of the British theologian and mathematician Baden Powell (1796-1860), by drawing on an important monograph by Prof. Pietro Corsi recently published in Italian. Powell’s work responded to a cultural strategy of assimilation of philosophical and scientific novelties within a fundamentally conservative view of society. Here, I provide a brief sketch of Powell’s attempt to rethink natural theology in the light of the latest scientific hypotheses, including those regarding the evolution of living beings.
Schegge di filosofia moderna XIV (a cura di I. Pozzoni), Nov 2014
Darwiniana. Evoluzione e comunicazione. Dai vermi all’intelligenza artificiale, Jul 2014
In the following paper, an account of Charles Darwin’s ideas on the topic of animal mind and its ... more In the following paper, an account of Charles Darwin’s ideas on the topic of animal mind and its evolution is provided. After a survey of Darwin’s reflections on the relationship between instincts and intelligence from the “Notebooks” to “On the Origin of Species”, it is suggested that Darwin’s latest inquiry on the subject was partly influenced by the harsh criticisms expressed by St. George Mivart in his anonymous review of “The Descent of Man”. More precisely, Darwin’s search for a criterion of intelligence as express in “The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Earthworms” (1881) might have been an attempt to avoid some of the weaknesses emphasized by Mivart. Finally, it is documented how and to what extent Darwin’s treatment of the intelligence of earthworms owed some debt to George Romanes’ research on mental evolution.
L'impatto dirompente della teoria di Darwin sull'ipotesi di un disegno divino in natura è un'imma... more L'impatto dirompente della teoria di Darwin sull'ipotesi di un disegno divino in natura è un'immagine che ha scarso bisogno di illustrazione. Si ritiene comunemente, in ambito extra-accademico ma non solo, 2 che prima del 1859 naturalisti e teologi naturali sostenessero quasi uniformemente l'idea che gli organismi viventi e i loro organi complessi fossero il risultato diretto dell'opera di un Creatore, la sola causa che sembrava spiegare adeguatamente l'evidente intelligenza e finalità di tali strutture. Il locus classicus di tale punto di vista è la Natural Theology (1802) di William Paley, dove si sviluppava ampiamente l'ipotesi di una fondamentale analogia fra gli organi biologici e gli artefatti umani. Questa spiegazione sarebbe poi diventata gravemente obsoleta soltanto quando Darwin e Wallace, alla fine degli anni Cinquanta, avrebbero proposto una spiegazione secondo leggi della formazione delle specie viventi, basata su un processola selezione naturaleche dava conto di organi complessi come l'occhio dei vertebrati o le ali degli uccelli senza bisogno di ricorrere all'ipotesi di un disegno. Soltanto il darwinismo avrebbe minato le basi di una prospettiva fino a quel momento talmente egemone nella cultura britannica da rappresentare, com'è stato affermato, il «contesto comune» attorno al quale scienza e religione furono indissolubilmente legate fino alla prima metà del XIX secolo (Young 1980). Negli ultimi decenni la ricerca storica ha tuttavia mostrato come tale ricostruzione soffra di diverse lacune. Si è mostrato ad esempio come il punto di vista di Paley fosse tutt'altro che dominante nella prima metà dell'Ottocento, essendo al contrario oggetto di forti critiche che muovevano da un diverso modo di concepire il disegno. Nella fattispecie, all'idea di un Dio artigiano responsabile della formazione degli organi complessi cominciava a subentrare quella di un Dio autore del piano generale, che poteva risiedere o nell'unità strutturale dei viventi, oppure nelle leggi che regolavano lo svolgimento della
N. 11, Vite dai filosofi. Filosofia e autobiografia, 2013 (I), Feb 2013
In the following paper it is maintained that Spencer's main purpose in writing An Autobiography (... more In the following paper it is maintained that Spencer's main purpose in writing An Autobiography (1904) was to prove the conformity between his own intellectual biography and the general conception of evolution set out in his System of Synthetic Philosophy. It is documented how Spencer's rhetorical strategy was to employ some embryological lexicon and to suggest the idea of an almost necessary development. Finally, it is suggested that in so doing Spencer inadvertently highlighted a fundamental difficulty of his own philosophy: the lack of an adequate distinction between an internalistic and externalistic account of evolutionary progress. *** Un'appendice all'evoluzione cosmica È di Thomas H. Huxley la celebre, caustica osservazione secondo cui «l'idea di tragedia per Spencer è una deduzione uccisa da un fatto» 1 ; un'affermazione che dava voce a una convinzione tutt'altro che infrequente tra i contemporanei di Spencer. Benché senza la stessa arguzia, ad esempio, Charles Darwin ebbe più volte a rimarcare la grande distanza che separava lo sforzo sistematico e totalizzante che caratterizzava l'approccio di Spencer dalla paziente opera di osservazione e analisi dei fatti empirici che considerava l'aspetto centrale del proprio lavoro: «Il metodo deduttivo con cui egli tratta ogni argomento» scriveva nell'Autobiography, «è assolutamente contrario alla mia mentalità. Le sue conclusioni non mi convincono mai […]. Le sue generalizzazioni fondamentali […] forse sono molto importanti filosoficamente, ma non sembrano utili da un punto di vista rigorosamente scientifico. Esse hanno il carattere di definizioni anziché di leggi naturali e non servono a prevedere che cosa accadrà nei vari casi particolari. Perlomeno
In the following article I provide a brief analysis of George J. Romanes’ conception of intellige... more In the following article I provide a brief analysis of George J. Romanes’ conception of intelligence and its relationship with instincts. Through a careful reading of some keypassages from Mental Evolution in Animals (1883) – Romanes’ chief work on the subject – I endeavour to show how the very notion of intelligence was related, in Romanes’ thought, to individual adaptation to the environmental novelty. Also, I attempt to clarify in what sense, according to Romanes, this capacity was to be included among the factors of organic evolution. Lastly, I compare Romanes’ view with that expressed in Darwin’s last book, i.e. The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms (1881). I contend that the two scientists basically shared the same conception of the relationship between instincts and intelligence, which accounted not only for the need of phylogenetic continuity, but also for that of discontinuity due to adaptive divergence.
N. 4, Antropologie/II, 2010 (III), 2010
Nell'Origine delle specie (1859) Darwin aveva intenzionalmente tralasciato il problema della poss... more Nell'Origine delle specie (1859) Darwin aveva intenzionalmente tralasciato il problema della possibile origine evolutiva della specie umana, limitandosi al noto auspicio: «Luce sarà fatta sull'origine dell'uomo e la sua storia». Nei dodici anni che trascorrono tra la pubblicazione di quel testo e quella dell'Origine dell'uomo (1871), altri prendono la parola sulla questione; la maggior parte, tuttavia, senza nemmeno contemplare il ruolo della selezione naturale nell'evoluzione umana. Tra questi, Carl Vogt in Vorlesungen über den Menschen, Charles Lyell in The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man e naturalmente Thomas H. Huxley in Man's Place in Nature, tutti e tre pubblicati nel 1863.
The main purpose of the following article is to provide a quick review of the
perspective known ... more The main purpose of the following article is to provide a quick review of the
perspective known in biology as ‘developmental systems theory’ (DST), which in the
middle of the 80s, in contrast with the so-called Darwinian orthodoxy, put forward a redefinition
of ontogeny by shifting the attention from the gene to the whole developmental
system. Moreover, the theory carried out a deep revision of key-concepts as ‘information’,
‘causation’ and ‘inheritance’, thus claiming a correction of the very idea of evolution by
means of natural selection. In conclusion, it will be summarized the way how this conceptual
revision, involving the notions themselves of ‘gene’ and ‘environment’, redefines the
terms of the opposition between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’, which from alternative causes of
development turn into different levels of enquiry.
PhD Thesis by Federico Morganti
The topic of my Ph.D. dissertation is the debate over the origin of animal instincts in nineteent... more The topic of my Ph.D. dissertation is the debate over the origin of animal instincts in nineteenth-century Britain. I focus on the emergence of the evolutionary explanations of animal mind, in close comparison with the previously prevailing perspective of natural theology. In dealing with authors such as Erasmus Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and George Romanes, I emphasise the complexity of the relationship between evolutionary thought and natural theology. Following the most recent scholarship, I assume that natural theology was by no means the uniform paradigm it was once believed to be. One of the chapters of my thesis is devoted to illustrating the variety of opinions held by natural theologians on the subject of animal mind in the first half of the century. I show how natural theology was rather receptive towards the hypothesis of animal intelligence at the time, occasionally even endorsing the belief that between the mind of humans and that of animals there is only a difference of degree. Also, some authors are discussed who conjectured that new instincts could be acquired by animals as a result of domestication and then passed on to the offspring – a sort of ‘Lamarckism’, so to say, confined to domestic species. The acceptance of such radical hypotheses is accounted for in the light of the general attempt of British natural theology to assimilate the most recent scientific findings within a theologically sustainable framework. As a result of this attempt, the views of natural theology with regard to animal psychology at the time were not necessarily hostile to those of evolutionary thinking, providing on the contrary a number of working-hypotheses which would prove helpful for the development of later evolutionary psychologies (including Darwin’s). I also contend that the idea of instincts as a kind of ‘intelligence’ – which was rather common among evolutionary theorists at the time – is best accounted for by reference to the conception which had long held sway among natural theologians, namely the notion that instincts are a kind of intelligence which cannot be ascribed to animals, being nothing but a particular instance of God’s intelligent plan. My claim is that the emphasis of evolutionists on the intelligent character of instincts – as in the notion of ‘lapsed intelligence’, formulated by George Lewes in the early 1870s and later explored by Romanes – was due to the natural-theological background that still permeated the scientific culture of their time.
Book Reviews by Federico Morganti
Il volume che mi accingo a commentare è l'edizione paperback di un testo già apparso nel 2007, il... more Il volume che mi accingo a commentare è l'edizione paperback di un testo già apparso nel 2007, il quale a sua volta ampliava i materiali presentati al pubblico dal medesimo curatore e dalla stessa casa editrice nel 1981, in un volume intitolato The Letters of Erasmus Darwin. L'uscita dell'edizione economica dell'epistolario del 2007, che ha anzitutto il vantaggio di abbattere i costi di quel volume, è una buona occasione per valutare i pregi del lavoro svolto dal più importante studioso della figura di Erasmus Darwin, cioè Desmond King-Hele.
Gli strumenti del potere. Dal principe all'archeologo, 2013
Nell'ambito della riflessione che Telmo Pievani ha costantemente dedicato all'arricchimento conos... more Nell'ambito della riflessione che Telmo Pievani ha costantemente dedicato all'arricchimento conosciuto in tempi recenti dal programma di ricerca evoluzionistico, non è mai mancata un'attenzione speciale per la figura di Charles Darwin. Dopo le importanti curatele riservate ai Taccuini (Laterza, 2008) e a L'origine delle specie. Abbozzo del 1842 (Einaudi, 2009) -alle quali si sono aggiunte più di recente le Lettere sulla religione (Einaudi, 2013) -, dopo l'agile Introduzione a Darwin uscita presso la collana laterziana "I filosofi" (2012), Pievani torna nelle librerie con un volume interamente e specificamente dedicato a L'origine delle specie. Un'attenzione, quella di Pievani per Darwin, che ha saputo sempre coniugare l'interesse più peculiarmente storico con l'esame scrupoloso degli aspetti teorici ancora fecondi quest'oggi, un binomio che ritroviamo senza dubbio nella dettagliata analisi condotta in Anatomia di una rivoluzione.
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Books by Federico Morganti
Papers by Federico Morganti
1868) I argue that natural theology was now more willing to ascribe to animals some degree of intelligence. Finally, I provide some considerations on the importance of these developments for the emergence of the evolutionary explanations of animal faculties.
perspective known in biology as ‘developmental systems theory’ (DST), which in the
middle of the 80s, in contrast with the so-called Darwinian orthodoxy, put forward a redefinition
of ontogeny by shifting the attention from the gene to the whole developmental
system. Moreover, the theory carried out a deep revision of key-concepts as ‘information’,
‘causation’ and ‘inheritance’, thus claiming a correction of the very idea of evolution by
means of natural selection. In conclusion, it will be summarized the way how this conceptual
revision, involving the notions themselves of ‘gene’ and ‘environment’, redefines the
terms of the opposition between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’, which from alternative causes of
development turn into different levels of enquiry.
PhD Thesis by Federico Morganti
Book Reviews by Federico Morganti
1868) I argue that natural theology was now more willing to ascribe to animals some degree of intelligence. Finally, I provide some considerations on the importance of these developments for the emergence of the evolutionary explanations of animal faculties.
perspective known in biology as ‘developmental systems theory’ (DST), which in the
middle of the 80s, in contrast with the so-called Darwinian orthodoxy, put forward a redefinition
of ontogeny by shifting the attention from the gene to the whole developmental
system. Moreover, the theory carried out a deep revision of key-concepts as ‘information’,
‘causation’ and ‘inheritance’, thus claiming a correction of the very idea of evolution by
means of natural selection. In conclusion, it will be summarized the way how this conceptual
revision, involving the notions themselves of ‘gene’ and ‘environment’, redefines the
terms of the opposition between ‘nature’ and ‘nurture’, which from alternative causes of
development turn into different levels of enquiry.
The Conference – organized by the Italian Philosophical Association “Syzetesis” (http://www.syzetesis.it/index.html) – intends to host original papers either addressing the historical analysis of the above issues or opening new lines of theoretical research concerning the relationship between “Nature” and “History” in all its potential fields of interest.
(http://www.syzetesis.it/index.html), intends to promote original papers, either
addressing the historical analysis of the above issues, or opening new lines of
theoretical research concerning the relationship between nomos, ethos and philia,
in their several philosophical variations.