P.B. Medawar – författare

Originally published in 1960, The Future of Man is a chronicle of Professor Medwar’s Reith lectures of 1959. The book outlines his predictions about the future estate of man, with the ‘process of foretelling, rather than with what is actually foretold’. He asks, can we predict the future size of populations? What is the evidence and theoretical background for the belief that human intelligence is declining? Could human beings become uniformly excellent or is inborn diversity and inequality a necessary part of the texture of human populations? The lectures tried to answer these questions and attempts to end with a definition of the biological standing of man. This book will be of interest to anthropologists, biologists and natural historians.

Originally published in 1957, The Uniqueness of the Individual is a collection of 9 essays published from the ten years preceding publication. The essays deal with some of the central problems of biology. These are among the questions put and answered from the standpoint of modern experimental biology. What is ageing and how is it measured? What theories have been held to account for it, and with what success? Did ageing evolve, and if so how? Is Lamarckism and adequate explanation of evolutionary process? Does evolution sometimes go wrong? Do human beings evolve in a way peculiar to themselves? Other essays touch upon the problems of scientific method and of growth and transformation. This book will be of interest to natural historians, evolutionists and anthropologists.

Originally published in 1960, The Future of Man is a chronicle of Professor Medwar’s Reith lectures of 1959. The book outlines his predictions about the future estate of man, with the ‘process of foretelling, rather than with what is actually foretold’. He asks, can we predict the future size of populations? What is the evidence and theoretical background for the belief that human intelligence is declining? Could human beings become uniformly excellent or is inborn diversity and inequality a necessary part of the texture of human populations? The lectures tried to answer these questions and attempts to end with a definition of the biological standing of man. This book will be of interest to anthropologists, biologists and natural historians.

Originally published in 1957, The Uniqueness of the Individual is a collection of 9 essays published from the ten years preceding publication. The essays deal with some of the central problems of biology. These are among the questions put and answered from the standpoint of modern experimental biology. What is ageing and how is it measured? What theories have been held to account for it, and with what success? Did ageing evolve, and if so how? Is Lamarckism and adequate explanation of evolutionary process? Does evolution sometimes go wrong? Do human beings evolve in a way peculiar to themselves? Other essays touch upon the problems of scientific method and of growth and transformation. This book will be of interest to natural historians, evolutionists and anthropologists.

First published in 1967, The Art of the Soluble presents collection of essays giving the views of the author on creativity and originality in science and on the logical connections between creative and critical thought. It is also a pioneering study of the ethology of the scientists – of the anatomy of scientific behaviour. Is it true that scientists are detached or dispassionate observers of Nature? What underlies the scientist’s deep concern over the matters of priority? How did a class distinction grow up between pure and applied science? By what criteria do scientists value their own and their colleagues work? Some of the answers grow out of author’s four critical studies of Teilhard de Chardin, Arthur Koestler, D’Arcy Thompson and Herbert Spencer and the book as whole is knit together by a major essay Hypothesis and Imagination, on the nature of scientific reasoning. P. B. Medawar, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960, did not see science as a book-keeping of Nature but, on the contrary, as the greatest of human adventures. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy of Science, natural science, and philosophy in general

First published in 1972, The Hope of Progress presents collection of essays and lectures dealing with the history of scientific ideas and the impact of science on society. The principle piece in this volume is the author’s 1969 presidential address to the British Association ‘On The Effecting of All Things Possible’, an argument for believing in the ability of science to solve the problems it has itself created, and which too many of us believe insoluble. It contains author’s Romanes Lecture on ‘Science and Literature’ and a well known critique of J.D. Watson’s notorious account of the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, The Double Helix. Other chapters discuss the possibility of the control and domination by science of the body and mind of Man- though the author concludes in ‘The Genetic Improvement of Man’ : ‘I think that, in the main, for many centuries to come, we shall have to put up with human beings as they are at present constituted’. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of history of science, philosophy of science, natural science, and philosophy in general.

First published in 1967, The Art of the Soluble presents collection of essays giving the views of the author on creativity and originality in science and on the logical connections between creative and critical thought. It is also a pioneering study of the ethology of the scientists – of the anatomy of scientific behaviour. Is it true that scientists are detached or dispassionate observers of Nature? What underlies the scientist’s deep concern over the matters of priority? How did a class distinction grow up between pure and applied science? By what criteria do scientists value their own and their colleagues work? Some of the answers grow out of author’s four critical studies of Teilhard de Chardin, Arthur Koestler, D’Arcy Thompson and Herbert Spencer and the book as whole is knit together by a major essay Hypothesis and Imagination, on the nature of scientific reasoning. P. B. Medawar, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960, did not see science as a book-keeping of Nature but, on the contrary, as the greatest of human adventures. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy of Science, natural science, and philosophy in general

First published in 1972, The Hope of Progress presents collection of essays and lectures dealing with the history of scientific ideas and the impact of science on society. The principle piece in this volume is the author’s 1969 presidential address to the British Association ‘On The Effecting of All Things Possible’, an argument for believing in the ability of science to solve the problems it has itself created, and which too many of us believe insoluble. It contains author’s Romanes Lecture on ‘Science and Literature’ and a well known critique of J.D. Watson’s notorious account of the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA, The Double Helix. Other chapters discuss the possibility of the control and domination by science of the body and mind of Man- though the author concludes in ‘The Genetic Improvement of Man’ : ‘I think that, in the main, for many centuries to come, we shall have to put up with human beings as they are at present constituted’. This book will be useful for scholars and researchers of history of science, philosophy of science, natural science, and philosophy in general.