Study Materials

1. What kind of 'nature' do the inhabitants of Wonderland live in?
2. How would you describe Alice's intellectual and emotional response to various situations in Wonderland? Does rationality 'work' in Wonderland? What is the role of nonsense in Wonderland?
3. In what ways, if any, does Wonderland resemble an evolutionary world? Do rudeness and confrontation have any survival value in Wonderland?
4. Why is Alice always trying to work out what the 'rules' of Wonderland are?

1. Do the inhabitants of Wonderland live in a 'nature' governed by Aristotelian 'chance' (Aristotle, Physics, pp. 20-30) or 'uniformity' (p. 32)? Both? Neither?
2. If you were Aristotle living in Wonderland, how might your rewrite your characterization of the four factors or causes (p. 26)?
3. Is the creation account in Genesis necessarily in conflict with an Aristotelian factor (causal) analysis?
4. What does Aristotle mean by a 'telic' world or nature (p. 37)? Do you agree with Aristotle's 'tooth' proof for the telic view of nature (p. 38)?
5. How does the idea of design apply to the world of Genesis? Wonderland? Aristotle's Physics?
6. Is Kenneth Miller's view of evolution in "Life's Grand Design?" more consistent with Genesis or Aristotle's Physics?

1. Is Dr. Pangloss an optimist or a fatalist?
2. Identify some of the targets of Voltaire's satire.
3. Compare the different views of life of Pangloss and Martin (chap. 20).
4. If the worlds of Candide and Wonderland are both irrational, which kind of irrationality do you prefer, and why? Is an evolutionary world irrational?
5. Is there any sense in Candide that human progress is possible?

1. Hume's listener, Pamphilus, refers at the start of the Dialogues to the "accurate philosophical turn of Cleanthes," "the careless scepticism of Philo," and "the rigid inflexible orthodoxy of Demea." Whose position do you agree with most--that of Cleanthes (natural theologist), Philo (skepticism), or Demea (orthodoxy)?
2. How strong a case do you think Cleanthes makes in his description of the world as a great, wonderful machine of a supernatural being? (Chap. 2).
3. Is this case consistent with Cleanthes' earlier arguments that Copernicus and Newton have shown how God works through natural laws?
4. Which of the three discussants is closest to Aristotle's idea that nature is a 'telic' world? Which is closest to Wordsworth's vision of nature? Which discussant would feel most comfortable in Wonderland?
5. Is Cleanthes' argument about the eye in Part III convincing? Why?

1. Compare and contrast Philo's example of the ship and carpenter (part 5) with Cleanthes' example of the great wonderful machine of the universe (part 2).
2. What might Wordsworth have said to Philo's suggestion in part 5 that the world may be the first rude essay of some infant deity who was ashamed of his job and ran away? What might Aristotle have said? What might the Mad Hatter have said?
3. What problem does Philo's vegetative world model solve (part 7)?
4. In part 10, Demea mentions the 'perpetual war' of existence. Is he thinking about evolution?
5. What are Philo's four circumstances of evil? (Chap. 11).

1. Paley states that "There cannot be design without a designer" (p. 9). In what sense is this true? In what sense false?
2. What is the point of the eye-telescope comparison, and how well does it work?
3. What is Paley's method of reasoning and what are its strengths and weaknesses?
4. Why does Paley think God used contrivances to make Nature work? (Pp. 39-41)
5. Why does the succession of plants and animals pose a special problem for Paley's argument and how does he deal with this problem? (Pp. 49-55)

1. Does the principle of division of labor have any applications to organic systems? What advantages might division of labor confer on organisms?
2. In what ways is Smith's 'Oeconomy' a self-regulating system? Is it more like Cleanthes' great machine of the universe, or like Demea's vegetative principle? Or more like the mad tea-party in Alice?
3. What role does opportunism play in Smith's system?
4. Is Smith's Oeconomy compatible with Aristotle s idea that nature is a 'telic'?
5. What is Smith's conclusion concerning the role of the economy in the progress of nations?

1. To what extent, if any, do you think Malthus's concept of the "Natural Inequality" (p. 20) holds in an age of advanced technology? Does technology have the potential to eliminate the Malthusian predicament?
2. According to Adam Smith, self-interest drives the development of an 'economy' that benefits everyone by providing more opportunity. This self-interest could be argued to be 'instinctual,' un-self-conscious behavior. In Malthus's system, instinct, which may lead to the development of an economy, leads also to the production of excess population. Can the views of Smith and Malthus be reconciled?
3. Malthus introduces the term "Struggle for Existence" in chapter 3 (p. 29). How does this term apply to his system? Is it used in any way that suggests evolutionary process?

1. Malthus seems to view the human mind as a 'compound' entity. Compare the role of instinct in Malthus's Essay and Smith's Wealth? What does the compound nature of the mind in the Essay have to do with Malthus's rejection of Smith's view of human motivation?
2. In chapter 18, Malthus suggests that the human mind arises out of the misery of the human condition. Do you agree? Why?

Introduction: pp. 1-6  Summary Overview
Chapter 1: pp. 29-43  Artificial Selection
Chapter 2: pp. 44-45  Variation Under Nature
Chapter 3: pp. 60-79  Struggle for Existence

1. What reasoning is behind Darwin's strategy of talking first about "Variation Under Domestication"? (See, especially, pp. 30-31). What do humans select for?
2. What are some of the problems of characterizing a 'species' ?
3. In Chapter III, "Struggle for Existence," Darwin talks about "a web of complex relations" (pp. 73-75). In what ways does this web of relations affect the struggle for existence among individuals of the same species?
4. According to Adam Smith, self-interest drives the development of an 'economy' that benefits everyone by providing more opportunity. Does this principle of an expanding economy benefiting everyone, work in a Darwinian economy?
5. How is Natural Selection like Artificial Selection? How is it different?

Chapter 4:
pp. 80-84, 87-90  Natural selection; Sexual selection
pp. 101-112  Circumstances favorable to natural selection; Extinction
pp. 116-125  Chart on divergence of Taxa (pp. 514-15)
pp. 129-130  Order of Succession: the Tree Image

Chapter 5: 
pp. 131-133  Laws of Variation; External conditions
pp. 171-175  Difficulties of the Theory; Absence of Transitional Varieties; Organs of Perfection: The Eye
pp. 185-191  Natura Non Facit Saltum
pp. 194-195  Doctrine of Utility
pp. 199-203, 206  Two Great Laws: Unity of Type; Conditions of Existence                                           

1. Discuss Darwin's personification of natural selection (pp. 83-4). Is there a fallacy in the way Darwin presents natural selection as an agent?
2. Compare sexual selection with natural selection. Which version is stronger?  What are some of the problems associated with sexual selection?
3. Why is divergence of character a problem for the formation of species (pp. 111-112)? What does divergence of character have to do with the Darwinian idea of 'place' or niche?
4. What issues does Darwin's discussion of "Organs of extreme perfection" raise (pp. 186-88)?
5. What does the Darwinian 'Natura non facit saltum' refer to (p. 194)? Are there any problems with this idea?

Chapter 7:
pp. 207-210  Instinct

Chapter 10:
pp. 312-321  Geological Succession; Appearance of New Species; Disappearance of Species
pp. 341-345  Summary of Geological Succession

Chapter 13:
pp. 433-450  The Natural System; Morphology; Embryology

Chapter 14:
pp. 484-490  Summary

1. In what way is instinct like a physiological organ in Darwin's system?
2. What are some of the ways in which the topic of geological succession defines the spatial characteristics of evolution?
3. How does Darwin use the natural system of classification to support his theory?
4. In what ways does Embryology support Darwin's views?
5. What does Darwin say about humans and evolution?

1. What explains the extraordinary 'beauty' of the Erewhonian people (chap. 7,  pp. 78 ff.).
2. In what ways do the Erewhonian 'straighteners' (p. 104) resemble our psychologists?
3. Discuss the Erewhonian 'trial' system (pp. 112-117).
4. What are some of the targets of Butler's satire?
5. In what way does evolution contribute to the worldview of Erewhon?

1. In the Erewhonian musical banks chapter (chap. 15, pp. 137-147), what elements of contemporary society do you think is Butler satirizing? What is the significance of the double system of currency? (p. 137)
2. What is to role of Yudgrun in Erewhonian society? (Chap. 17, pp. 156-161). Is there a Yudgrun in our contemporary society?
3. What is the attitude toward progress (see pp. 189-91) at the Colleges of Unreason?

1. What are some of the dangers the Erewhonians see in machine consciousness?
2. How do the Erewhonians see machine evolution taking place?
3. How will humans and evolved machines co-exist, in the view of the Erewhonians?
4. How are machines extensions of humans, in the view of Erewhonians?
5. Is Butler's argument about machine evolution plausible?

1. Why does Hyde's appearance seem so shocking to Utterson (pp. 16-18)?
2. To what extent do Hyde's personality traits draw on instincts all primates, including humans, share?
3. Why does Jeykll find Hyde so fascinating? 
4. Are there any Darwinian interpretations we can place on the Jekyll-Hyde syndrome?
5. What is the implication of the fact that a mere drug separates Jekyll from Hyde?

1. Huxley speaks of the State of Nature (section 1, pp. 1-5)) and the Human State of Art (section 2, pp. 9-11), and the two in a state of conflict with each other (section 3, pp. 11-13). Is this a valid way of thinking of the human relationship with its conditions of existence?
2. What are some of the implications of  Huxley's analogy of human culture and the colony (section 5, pp. 16-17).
3. On p. 20, Huxley states that humans compete in evolutionary terms not by struggling with each other but by controlling their conditions of existence. What are the implications of this human strategy?
4. In section 7 (pp. 20-21), Huxley identifies the serpent in the human Garden of Eden. What is the serpent and how integral a part of human existence is this force?
5. In section 10 (pp. 26-30), Huxley expands on the human condition as one in which humans carry within themselves the seeds of their own destruction. Does this view share anything with the view of Voltaire in Candide? How is Huxley's view different than that of Voltaire?

1. Describe the role or presence of nature in Hardy's settings. How does Hardy's sense of nature compare with that of William Wordsworth in "Tintern Abbey"?
2. Are there any parallels between the efforts of Tess and Alice (in Alice in Wonderland) to understand the way the social code works?
3. What is the significance of the hay-trusser's dance in the barn at Chaseborough (chap. 10)? Compare this scene with that of Tess in the garden in the mists of pollen (chap. 19).
4. Describe Angel Clare's personality. How does he contrast with Alec'd Uberville?

1. Compare the Clare family (chap. 25) with the Durbyfields (chap. 3).
2. Describe Angel's attitude toward Tess (Chap. 29-30). In what way does she conform to his ideal?
3. In Chapter 34, in which the two newly-marrieds confess to each other, how do the two 'sinners' compare to each other in terms of guilt?
4. Discuss the symbolism of the dying pheasants in chapter 51.

1. Compare the utopian visions of Wells and Butler. Both use evolutionary themes, but in very different ways.
2. Could human society regress in the way that Wells suggests in his characterization of the Eloi and Morlocks?
3. Are the Eloi and Morlocks reminiscent of Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde in any way?
4. Is Wells's novel an illustration of Huxley's Evolution and Ethics?

1. Do you agree with Wiener's definition for machine learning on p. 14?
2. What does Wiener mean by phylogenetic learning? (Pp. 13, 27-28) How does this kind of learning compare with individual (ontogenic) learning?
3. What do machines and organisms have in common in respect to reproduction? (Pp. 45-48)
4. What point about technology is Wiener trying to make with his tale of the Monkey's Paw? (Pp. 58-60)
5. Are there purposes expressed by technological operations that conflict with human purposes? (Pp. 64-65).