James Moore of The Open University visits CBS Grad Students

Professor James Moore recently visited with CBS grad students and faculty. Dr. Moore, a Tempe native, received his Ph.D. from Manchester University and has made a career in the UK, researching  the social history of natural theology and scientific naturalism. He is best known for his works on the life and legacies of Charles Darwin, but he is also interested in "science and religion" issues, evolutionary concepts of nature and society, the popularization of science, and twentieth-century fundamentalisms.

Following an informal, sugar and caffeine fueled discussion around the Center conference table with about ten grad students and faculty members, Moore addressed the weekly Biology and Society 'lab meeting' with a prepared talk. He questioned the popular preoccupation with the supposed significance of the Galapagos Islands fauna to Darwin’s theories, suggesting that Darwin's experiences earlier in the Beagle voyage at Tierra del Fuego were more important, even "radically destabilizing" and vital to directing Darwin's thoughts toward solving the ‘mystery of mysteries’, the origin of species. Afterward, Moore took questions from the audience and asked a few of his own in an impromptu workshop about aspects of his account that remained puzzling or uncertain.