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SUMMARY:An apprenticeship in theory: rethinking Darwin's debt to Lyell - A
 listair Sponsel (Harvard University)
DTSTART:20120514T120000Z
DTEND:20120514T131500Z
UID:TALK38209@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sophie Waring
DESCRIPTION:This paper emerges from my interest in how Charles Darwin came
  to develop and publish his theories in the ways that he did. Here I exami
 ne the substantial role played by his personal interactions with Charles L
 yell in the years immediately after returning from the _Beagle_ voyage. Ly
 ell's influence on Darwin (both indirectly through his authorship of _The 
 Principles of Geology_ and subsequently as a friend and advocate) is well 
 known. However\, I argue that Lyell played a more active role in reshaping
  Darwin's ideas for specific audiences and in choreographing responses to 
 them than has previously been recognised. Through these interventions Lyel
 l urged Darwin toward specific modes of theorizing and scientific authorsh
 ip that served both men's interests. When Darwin called Lyell his 'master'
  in\ngeology\, he meant this literally. I show how Lyell claimed a proprie
 tary right to his apprentice's work and assumed a share of the credit for 
 Darwin's achievements. I offer three conclusions: that Darwin's apparent t
 alent for constructing written scientific arguments should be considered a
  learned skill\; that during his integration in the specialist scientific 
 community\, Darwin relied on the sort of personal mentorship that has been
  identified as crucial to the success of young scientists in\nlaboratory-b
 ased research schools in the nineteenth century\; and that Darwin's subseq
 uent unease with the 'speculation' that he believed had characterised the 
 early work he produced under Lyell's guidance was a\nfactor in his reticen
 ce to make his species theory public.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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