Old Email Archive

digest 2006-04-04 #001.txt

litsci-l-digest         Tuesday, April 4 2006         Volume 01 : Number
154



In this issue:

     SUB 06   Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the Promotion of
Science as "Rational Religion"
     SUB 06 The Physiology of Discourse: Darwin's The Expression of the
Emotions in Man and Animals and the Nineteenth-Century Demise of
Rhetoric 

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Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:39:45 -0500
From: JoAnn 
Subject: SUB 06   Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the Promotion of
Science as "Rational Religion"

Paper Proposal:  Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the Promotion of
Science as "Rational Religion"

As in the case of biological evolution, in the 20th century cosmic
evolution
has functioned as more than a scientific account of nature. It has
become a
scientific idea invested with cultural and moral significance.
Astronomers
use cosmic evolution to promote their discipline, bolster the case for
biological evolution, and encourage support for science. These themes
are
examined using the case of Harlow Shapley, who became an influential
spokesman for science through his roles as astronomer, observatory
director,
and popularizer. Shapley's mission was to bring the facts of science to
the
widest possible audience and to identify the societal significance of
these
facts. In his popular lectures and books he promoted a vision of the
cosmos
that held lessons of the broader significance of science for humanity.
He
drew heavily upon evolutionary ideas in his advocacy of astronomy,
science,
and rationality. From the 1950s through the 1960s cosmic evolution
served as
the foundation for Shapley's efforts to promote science as "stellar
theology" or "rational religion," which he identified as the next step
in
the evolution of religion. This paper will focus on Harlow Shapley's use
of
cosmic evolution as a central theme in his efforts to promote and
popularize
science. 

Keywords: biological evolution, cosmic evolution,  popularization of
science, rationality, science and religion


JoAnn Palmeri
Graduate Assistant
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Oklahoma
401 West Brooks, Room 120
Norman, OK 73019
palmerij@ou.edu 

 

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Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 12:26:04 -0400
From: "Winter, Sarah" 
Subject: SUB 06 The Physiology of Discourse: Darwin's The Expression of
the Emotions in Man and Animals and the Nineteenth-Century Demise of
Rhetoric 


SUB 06

=20

Keywords:  Darwin; expression; rhetoric; race; aesthetics; language;
physiology

Sarah Winter

Assoc. Professor, English, University of Connecticut, Storrs

sarah.winter@uconn.edu 

=20


Abstract for SLSA 20th Annual Conference


=20

The Physiology of Discourse: Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in
Man and Animals and the Nineteenth-Century Demise of Rhetoric=20

=20

This talk explores the emergence of a Darwinian evolutionary science of
expression in the context of the histories of rhetoric and
nineteenth-century theories of race.  Charles Darwin's The Expression of
the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), supersedes a series of earlier
studies of gesture and expression, including rhetorical treatises on
elocution, manuals of stage acting and physiognomy, and works of natural
philosophy, such as Charles Bell's The Anatomy and Philosophy of
Expression (1806), which defined expression as an indication of uniquely
human intelligence and divine design, based on examples from art and
comparative physiology.  Darwin's study explains facial expressions as a
repertoire of automatic responses resulting from natural selection and
shared with animals.  While Darwin's argument contradicts the racial
differentiation of human forms common in both aesthetics and physiology
by arguing for the universal meaning of expression, it also undermines
the roles of rhetoric and aesthetics in defining expression as a form of
discourse. In suggesting that language is supplemental to instinctive
and involuntary modes of communication, Darwin's biology of expression
also subordinates the humanistic to the scientific disciplines, and
participates in the demise of rhetoric as the practical study of the
emotive and gestural forms of communication. =20

=20

=20


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End of litsci-l-digest V1 #154
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