At the Limits of (Our) Imagination: Did Mendel Really Fail to See the Importance of his Discovery for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00094862%3A_____%2F19%3AN0000101" target="_blank" >RIV/00094862:_____/19:N0000101 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

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DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

At the Limits of (Our) Imagination: Did Mendel Really Fail to See the Importance of his Discovery for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

In the history of science as well as in history in general, it is not possible to seriously ask and answer questions like: What would it be like if....? However, that doesn’t seem to hold in one case: What would it have been like if Darwin had read Mendel or if they communicated with each other? It’s really as if there is an exception in the history of science, because the above questions have been repeatedly asked since the beginning of genetics. There must be a reason, because everyone knows that even the best answer will always be mere speculation and therefore worthless in terms of historical research. But the real reason is probably that even such “worthless” speculation, just in the case of Mendel and Darwin, can tell us something important about how we understand and interpret the very foundations of scientific thought, what modern science is all about and what it stands for. Recently, similar speculation has been posited by Rama S. Singh in his article Limits of imagination. His main argument rests on the assumption that Mendel failed to see the importance of his discovery for Darwin’s theory of evolution. We reject such an assumption, because the study of the original historical sources implies something completely different. Mendel was well aware of the importance of his discovery for Darwin’s theory, and the real limits were not in his imagination, but entirely elsewhere.

Název v anglickém jazyce

At the Limits of (Our) Imagination: Did Mendel Really Fail to See the Importance of his Discovery for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution?

Popis výsledku anglicky

In the history of science as well as in history in general, it is not possible to seriously ask and answer questions like: What would it be like if....? However, that doesn’t seem to hold in one case: What would it have been like if Darwin had read Mendel or if they communicated with each other? It’s really as if there is an exception in the history of science, because the above questions have been repeatedly asked since the beginning of genetics. There must be a reason, because everyone knows that even the best answer will always be mere speculation and therefore worthless in terms of historical research. But the real reason is probably that even such “worthless” speculation, just in the case of Mendel and Darwin, can tell us something important about how we understand and interpret the very foundations of scientific thought, what modern science is all about and what it stands for. Recently, similar speculation has been posited by Rama S. Singh in his article Limits of imagination. His main argument rests on the assumption that Mendel failed to see the importance of his discovery for Darwin’s theory of evolution. We reject such an assumption, because the study of the original historical sources implies something completely different. Mendel was well aware of the importance of his discovery for Darwin’s theory, and the real limits were not in his imagination, but entirely elsewhere.

Druh

J_ost - Ostatní články v recenzovaných periodicích

CEP obor

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OECD FORD obor

60101 - History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)

Projekt

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Návaznosti

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Rok uplatnění

2019

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název periodika

Folia Mendeliana

ISSN

0085-0748

e-ISSN

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Svazek periodika

55

Číslo periodika v rámci svazku

1

Stát vydavatele periodika

CZ - Česká republika

Počet stran výsledku

5

Strana od-do

17-21

Kód UT WoS článku

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EID výsledku v databázi Scopus

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