Free Will and the Human Sciences in Britain, 1870–1910
Roger Smith
Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century
978 1 84893 359 0: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 78144 006 3
From the late nineteenth century onwards religion gave way to science as the dominant force in society. This led to a questioning of the principle of free will – if the workings of the human mind could be reduced to purely physiological explanations, then what place was there for human agency and self-improvement?
Smith takes an in-depth look at the problem of free will through the prism of different disciplines. Physiology, psychology, philosophy, evolutionary theory, ethics, history and sociology all played a part in the debates that took place. His subtly nuanced navigation through these arguments has much to contribute both to our understanding of Victorian and Edwardian science and culture, as well having relevance to current debates on the role of genes in determining behaviour.
Readership
History of Science and Medicine, Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, Intellectual History, Philosophy and Psychology
Contents
1 Belief in Free Will: What was at Stake?
2 Physiology and Mind in the 1870s
3 Shaping the Science of Psychology
4 Volition and Mental Activity
5 Causation
6 The Moral Agent
7 History and Society
8 The Legacy