Literature in "Mind": H.G. Wells and the Evolution of the Mad Scientist (original) (raw)

Origin of Man commented by Herbert George WELLS

Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was a writer with a university education specialized in biology. He had followed T. H. Huxley's teaching of comparative anatomy which defended Darwin's theory of evolution and therefore much of his writing has the specific context which will that the message of history and the message of nature be the same, adapt or die. We therefore give particular importance to the 1919 publication “The outline of history : being a plain history of life and mankind”.

The Beast Within: H.G. Wells, The Island of Doctor Moreau and Human Evolution in the mid-1890s

Geological Journal, Volume 50, pp 383-397, 2015

H.G. Wells’ novels, The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, were both concerned with the evolutionary destiny of mankind and what it meant to be human, both important areas of discussion for Victorian natural science in the 1890s. In this essay, I set these two works in their broader scientific context and explore some of the then contemporary influences on them drawn from the emerging disciplines of archaeology and anthropology. Wells was a student of T.H. Huxley whose influence on his own emerging views on human evolution is clear. While most scientists and the lay-public accepted the reality of evolution by the 1890s, and the natural origins of the human species, fear of the implications of our ‘primitive’ heritage pervaded popular and scientific works. Wells bridged that gap with an uncompromising outlook delivered to the public as scientific truth delivered through short stories, novels and scientific journalism

The Human Species and the Good Gripping Dreams of H.G. Wells

2013

H.G. Wells was one of the first literary authors to depict human beings from an explicitly Darwinian perspective. The enduring appeal of his fiction testifies to his artistic intuition and imaginative understanding of evolution. However, Wells drew a sharp line between nature and culture, trusting culture to work against nature toward his ideal social state. From a modern evolutionary perspective, that split gave him an inadequate view of two important parts of human nature: imaginative culture and dispositions toward cooperative group behavior. In this article, I put Wells back on the Darwinian ground from which literary scholars have detached him. Taking The Time Machine and The Island of Dr. Moreau as examples, I use historical, biographical sources and modern evolutionary science to explain the psychological functions, imaginative effect and ambiguous canonical status of Wells’s early fiction.

The descent of mind: Psychological perspectives on hominid evolution

American Journal of Human Biology, 2001

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The Descent of Humanity: The Biological Roots of Human Consciousness, Culture and History

Origins of Mind, Biosemiotics 8, 2013

The notion of species-speci fi c modelling allows us to construct taxonomies of mental models, based on the concept of qualia , such as posing 'invariant requests to neural processes', supporting networks of which are subject to selective pressures. The selection is based on their respective capacity to differently adapt to behaviour patterns, which neural networks control. For extremely premature births, thanks to foetalization, in Homo sapiens sapiens , speci fi c neural groups are offered for selection in early critical periods of development and in a social environment. As a consequence, far beyond any other primate, new cognitive devices are developed, which lead to a high level of abstract thinking. Therefore, the reproposition of the culturalhistorical psychology is important. Foetalization and education are the two pillars that give rise to the human being's ability to accumulate a perceivable and collective knowledge, which is precluded to other animal cultures. These are the roots both of consciousness and of the speci fi c mechanisms that give rise to transmissibility and variability and adaptability of the human cultures. The key to this evolutionary quantum leap is the advent of a new class of replicators: memes, de fi ned as informational patterns of a signic nature with a metaphorical, relational organization; memes are the basic framework in the structure of personality both in individuals and in social groups.

Evolution of science I: evolution of mind

The central nervous system and particularly the brain was designed to control the life cycle of a living being. With increasing size and sophistication, in mammals, the brain became capable of exercising significant control over life. In Homo sapiens the brain became significantly powerful and capable of comprehension beyond survival needs with visualization, formal thought and long-term memory. Here, we trace the rise of the power of the brains of the Homo sapiens and its capability to comprehend the three spatial dimensions as well as time. By tracing the evolution of technology over the last millennium and particularly the late arrival of astronomy, evolution of the formal thinking process in humans will be discussed in a follow up paper. We will trace the extensive use of this new faculty by humans to comprehend the working of the universe.