Darwin and Darwinisms

Richard Delisle

Richard Delisle is Full Professor at the University of Lethbridge, Canada. He obtained two Ph.D. degrees, one in paleoanthropology and one in philosophy. Delisle’s research focuses on the history and philosophy of science, specifically Darwinism and evolutionary studies, as well as on the history and epistemology of paleoanthropology. Since Fall 2018, he has been the founder and editor of the book series Evolutionary Biology: New Perspectives on its Development with Springer Nature. Delisle is the author of several original articles and books dedicated to the study of Darwinism and the evaluation of traditional understandings of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Among his books, one finds Charles Darwin's Incomplete Revolution: The Origin of Species and the Static Worldview (2019) and Rereading Darwin's Origin of Species: The Hesitations of an Evolutionist (2022). Delisle continues to expand his research on these topics.

Nicolaas A. Rupke

Nicolaas Rupke is Professor Em. of the History of Science at Göttingen University and Johnson Professor in the College at Washington & Lee. Educated at Groningen and Princeton, he has held research fellowships at the Smithsonian, Oxford, Tübingen, NIAS, the Wellcome Institute, the NHC, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Canberra, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and he was the initial occupant of the Tyrone Professorship of Medical History at Vanderbilt University. His books include scientific biographies of William Buckland, Richard Owen and Alexander von Humboldt. Rupke’s metabiographical approach to Humboldt has received considerable acclaim. Currently, Rupke works on Johann Friedrich Blumenbach and the non-Darwinian tradition in evolutionary theory. He is a fellow of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (recently renamed the Lower Saxony Academy of Sciences at Göttingen).

Antonello La Vergata

Antonello La Vergata graduated from the University of Florence. He was a Researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Rome. After teaching at the Università della Calabria and the University of Bologna, La Vergata has been a Full Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia until his retirement on January 1, 2022. He was a visiting professor of History of Science at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, and at the Stanford Programme in Florence, University of Stanford. La Vergata  is the President of the Italian Society for the Study of the Relations between Science and Literature (SISL). He was awarded various fellowships and awards, such as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, the Prix Marc-Auguste Pictet by the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève, and the “Medaglia Giuseppe Montalenti” (Dipartimento di Biologia evoluzionistica “Charles Darwin”, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”). He was the Principal Investigator or coordinator of research projects supported by the National Research Council and/or the Ministry of Education and Research (1996-2004, 2007). La Vergata has been/is a member of the editorial board of various journals and remains a co-editor of Rivista di Filosofia. He is also the editor of the series “Guerra e cultura. Biblioteca della Grande Guerra” (Pisa, ETS). La Vergata is the author of more than 250 articles in Italian and other languages. Among his books, one finds Images of the Economy of Nature, 1650–1930. From “nature’s war” to Darwin’s “struggle for life." His research is focused on the history of evolution theories; relations between life sciences, philosophy, and the social sciences; evolutionary ethics; human beings and animals; biology and culture; aggression; war; the problem of technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; images of nature and man’s place in it; science and literature; ecological ideas.