The Case Of The Midwife Toad: A Scientific Mystery Revisited
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the crossroads of science, fraud, and obsession stands one of the twentieth century's most gripping intellectual dramas — the story of Paul Kammerer, the Austrian biologist whose controversial experiments with the midwife toad shook the foundations of evolutionary theory. The Case of the Midwife Toad reconstructs the tragic arc of a scientist who claimed to have proven the inheritance of acquired characteristics, a concept championed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and fiercely opposed by the Darwinian establishment, only to be destroyed by accusations of fraud that haunted him to his death. Arthur Koestler presents a meticulous and impassioned account of the affair, drawing on original research to argue that the truth behind the scandal was far more complex — and far more troubling — than the scientific community was willing to admit. Koestler, one of the great intellectual provocateurs of the twentieth century, uses this singular case to mount a broader challenge against the dogmas of orthodox Neo-Darwinism, questioning whether the scientific establishment is as objective and self-correcting as it claims to be. His prose is precise yet deeply humane, weaving biography, philosophy of science, and historical investigation into a narrative that resonates long after the final page. Was Kammerer a visionary ahead of his time, a tragic victim of institutional prejudice, or something more ambiguous still? The answer, Koestler suggests, may reveal as much about the nature of scientific truth as it does about the man at the centre of the storm.
Author: Arthur Koestler
Format: Hardback
Genre: Science
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the crossroads of science, fraud, and obsession stands one of the twentieth century's most gripping intellectual dramas — the story of Paul Kammerer, the Austrian biologist whose controversial experiments with the midwife toad shook the foundations of evolutionary theory. The Case of the Midwife Toad reconstructs the tragic arc of a scientist who claimed to have proven the inheritance of acquired characteristics, a concept championed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and fiercely opposed by the Darwinian establishment, only to be destroyed by accusations of fraud that haunted him to his death. Arthur Koestler presents a meticulous and impassioned account of the affair, drawing on original research to argue that the truth behind the scandal was far more complex — and far more troubling — than the scientific community was willing to admit. Koestler, one of the great intellectual provocateurs of the twentieth century, uses this singular case to mount a broader challenge against the dogmas of orthodox Neo-Darwinism, questioning whether the scientific establishment is as objective and self-correcting as it claims to be. His prose is precise yet deeply humane, weaving biography, philosophy of science, and historical investigation into a narrative that resonates long after the final page. Was Kammerer a visionary ahead of his time, a tragic victim of institutional prejudice, or something more ambiguous still? The answer, Koestler suggests, may reveal as much about the nature of scientific truth as it does about the man at the centre of the storm.