Darwin's theory, as well as its scientific, literary and political reception in France, continue to be the subject of debate. The controversies it has provoked since the first French translation of The Origin of Species in 1862 have not been confined to naturalists, geologists and paleontologists. Many other scholars were concerned with the impact of Darwinism on their disciplines, notably in philology, mathematics, linguistics, comparative psychology, history and philosophy.
The contributors to Darwin at the Collège de France show that the Collège de France is an ideal point of reference for studying Darwin's ideas and their reception, and how they have influenced the formation of disciplines from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Among the French defenders or opponents of Darwinism were several of his teachers, starting with Pierre Flourens, whoseExamen du livre de M. Darwin (1864) was one of the first hostile reviews of The Origin of Species. Others are listed at : Ernest Renan, Edgar Quinet, Théodule Ribot, Jean-Charles Lévêque, Étienne-Jules Marey, Jean-François Nourrisson, Michel Bréal, Gabriel Tarde, Henri Bergson, Étienne Gilson. Professors of biology, medicine, paleontology, neuroscience and political economy also contributed.
The colloquium, whose contributions on some of the above-mentioned scholars are collected in the second volume of the collection " Passage des disciplines ", was organized by Alain Prochiantz and Antoine Compagnon as part of the project " Passage des disciplines : Histoire globale du Collège de France, XIXe siècle - XXe siècle ", which looks at the evolution of the subjects taught as well as those not admitted to the Collège, which form a " Collège virtuel ", from the end of the 18th century to the 1960s. It is directed by Antoine Compagnon, with the collaboration of Céline Surprenant and financial support from PSL (2016-2019), and the Fondation Hugot.
Publication : January 20 2020
Book available in digital version, in Freemium open access on the OpenEdition Books portal.
