Old Email Archive

digest 2006-03-30 #002.txt

litsci-l-digest        Thursday, March 30 2006        Volume 01 : Number
150



In this issue:

     SUB 06   Evolutionary Metaphors and the Popularization of Big Bang
Cosmology
     SUB 06: "The Idea of Evolution in Art: How Lamarck, Darwin,
Spengler, and others Shaped Modernist Art History Writing"

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Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 10:56:15 -0800
From: "McConnell, Craig" 
Subject: SUB 06   Evolutionary Metaphors and the Popularization of Big
Bang Cosmology


Abstract: =20
Since early in the development of big bang cosmology, evolutionary
metaphors have been applied to cosmological theories.  George Gamow
invoked the metaphor in part to distance himself from the ex nihilo
implications of the expanding universe, implications that his work on
the early universe drew ever greater attention to.  Many astronomers,
physicists, and science writers since the 1950s have extended the use of
this metaphor in many directions.  For some, the word evolution merely
implies development over time.  Lee Smolin, on the other hand, has
advanced the idea of "cosmological natural selection," fully embracing
the evolutionary metaphor.  In this paper, I will examine the origins of
evolutionary language in popular works on cosmology, and draw attention
to the implications that these metaphors have for the reception of the
big bang in philosophical and popular contexts. =20
Keywords:
metaphor, narrative, popular literature, big bang, natural selection

- --Craig

Craig McConnell, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Liberal Studies
California State University, Fullerton
cmcconnell@fullerton.edu 
http://faculty.fullerton.edu/cmcconnell 

----------------------------------------------

>>> Isabel W�?nsche  3/30/2006 3:09:35 PM >>>

To all "Art People"

PANEL PROPOSAL FOR SLSA 2006
"The Idea of Evolution in Art: How Lamarck, Darwin, Spencer, and  
others Shaped Modernist Art History Writing"

This panel explores the role that evolutionary theory played in the  
formation and development of art history as an academic discipline.  
While the concept of evolution  distinctly influenced the shift from  
formations of rather a-historic aesthetic categories to  
interpretations of the "natural" develoment of artistic styles and  
the interaction of modernist -isms, it also shaped the artists'   
understanding of their role in the overall process of human artistic  
and cultural development. This panel wishes to particularly focus on  
the various modernist narratives of the development of artistic  
styles and the visual arts in general as well as on new  
interpretations of the role of the artist in this process.

Keywords: evolutionary theory, Lamarckism, Darwinism, Spencerism,  
development of artistic styles, modernist art theory, utopia in avant- 
garde art


--
Prof. Dr. Isabel W�?nsche

School of Humanities and Social Sciences
International University Bremen, Germany

Tel. 49-421-200-3311
Fax: 49-421-200-49-3311
E-Mail: i.wunsche@iu-bremen.de

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