In the inaugural volume in our new History and Philosophy of Education series, Adam Laats and Harvey Siegel examine both the historical and philosophical issues at the heart of the controversies about evolution. What Americans say we “know” about evolution has become hopelessly muddled in what we “believe.” Yet by placing those who opposed the teaching of evolution within their historical context, historian Adam Laats shows how these individuals were not eccentric or idiosyncratic, but rather must be understood as part of a long tradition of religious dissent in American education. The status of evolution-opposition as a minority position held by a dissenting group inevitably raises key philosophical issues, which philosopher Harvey Siegel addresses in the second half of the book. Siegel aims to disentangle questions of knowledge from questions of belief, addressing such problems as what scientific theory is, what the State’s obligation is with respect to biology education, and whether it must be neutral in its curriculums. The authors argue that biology teachers need to aim to foster student knowledge and understanding of evolution, if not necessarily belief in it. It is, they assert, the best extant scientific account of its domain, and should be taught as such. With their combined historical and philosophical perspective, Laats and Siegel suggest ways of overcoming the controversy that give both evolutionary theory its scientific due and its opponents’ objections to it religious legitimacy.
No fight over what gets taught in American classrooms is more heated than the battle over humanity’s origins. For more than a century we have argued about evolutionary theory and creationism (and its successor theory, intelligent design), yet we seem no closer to a resolution than we were in Darwin’s day. In this thoughtful examination of how we teach origins, historian Adam Laats and philosopher Harvey Siegel offer crucial new ways to think not just about the evolution debate but how science and religion can make peace in the classroom.
Laats and Siegel agree with most scientists: creationism is flawed, as science. But, they argue, students who believe it nevertheless need to be accommodated in public school science classes. Scientific or not, creationism maintains an important role in American history and culture as a point of religious dissent, a sustained form of protest that has weathered a century of broad—and often dramatic—social changes. At the same time, evolutionary theory has become a critical building block of modern knowledge. The key to accommodating both viewpoints, they show, is to disentangle belief from knowledge. A student does not need tobelieve in evolution in order to understand its tenets and evidence, and in this way can be fully literate in modern scientific thought and still maintain contrary religious or cultural views. Altogether, Laats and Siegel offer the kind of level-headed analysis that is crucial to finding a way out of our culture-war deadlock.
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