In November 1859, while Charles Darwin was staying in Ilkley, he published one of the most famous scientific books of all time: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.  It’s well known that Darwin named his theory “natural selection” in order to call attention to an analogy with stockbreeding or “artificial selection.”  But how, exactly, did he think the analogy worked?  And why did he set such store by it?  In our day, after all, analogies in science don’t seem all that serious.  We think of the UK’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van‒Tam, livening up press briefings about coronavirus by bringing in football matches, train rides and yoghurt.  In this talk Professor Greg Radick will preview a new analysis of Darwin’s analogy, from a book co-authored with Leeds colleagues Roger White and Jonathan Hodge, and due to be published this summer by Cambridge University Press.

Further Reading: 

Van-Tam's analogies: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55169801

Roger M. White, M.J.S Hodge & Gregory Radick, Darwin's Argument by Analogy: From Artificial to Natural Selection