Dissertation Research: The "Eco-Worldview" of Charles Birch: Biology, Environmentalism, and Liberal Christianity in the 20th Century

论文研究：查尔斯·伯奇的“生态世界观”：20世纪的生物学、环保主义和自由基督教

• 批准号: 0647095
• 负责人: Hunter Heyck
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Oklahoma Norman Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-05-01 至 2008-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0647095&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Eco; Worldview; Charles

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant in the History of Science is a request for money to fund travel and research expenses necessary for completing a doctoral dissertation on the life and work of L. Charles Birch, a renowned population biologist, ecologist, philosopher and religious thinker who invented the phrase (and helped spark a movement toward) ecological sustainability. The project is timely not only because it provides insight into the history of ecology and the relationship between science and religion--both topics of central importance today but also because Dr. Birch is now 89 and opportunities are dwindling for documenting his intimate experiences in these areas. The project's CO-PI is uniquely qualified for this research, having already completed a preliminary trip in June of 2006 to conduct introductory interviews with Birch and outline future research plans. He has also contacted relevant archives and obtained permission for future access to dissertation materials. The chief intellectual merits of the project are its contributions to the history of ecology, the history of evolutionary thought and the evolutionary synthesis, and the history of the relationship between science and religion during the 20th century. A major goal of this study is to explore the connections between Birch's Whiteheadian process theology, which was explicitly intended to adapt Christian faith to the findings and methods of modern science, and Birch's career in population biology and ecology. A second objective is to examine how Birch's work with other leading biologists like Sewall Wright and Theodosius Dobzhanksy in America, and C.H. Waddington in England, impacted his view on the relationship between evolution and ecology, thereby also influencing his religious philosophy. The project proposes as a working hypothesis that even though Birch often thought of his scientific and his religious philosophical pursuits as distinct, they were in fact rooted in a common worldview, guided by common moral and philosophical principles, and therefore sources of common solutions to current social problems. Birch's ecological worldview professed the existence of a dynamic interconnectedness between all living things, and called on younger generations to recognize that by adopting an ethics of ecology they could avert many problems symptomatic of an industrial, technology-driven world without falling into old traps like religious conservatism and scientific determinism (what he saw as the polar extremes). While Birch's synthesis of ideas was unique, the problems he sought to address during his life were truly universal. Society today continues to search for a healthy relationship between its scientific pursuits and ecological responsibilities, as well as between its scientific pursuits and religious foundations. This dissertation project will aid in broadening our understanding of how these relationships developed over the past century, and how they reached their present status within 21st-century society.

这个科学与社会论文改进补助金在科学史上是一个资金的要求，以资助必要的旅行和研究费用，完成博士论文的生活和工作的L。查尔斯·伯奇，著名的人口生物学家、生态学家、哲学家和宗教思想家，他发明了生态可持续性这个短语（并帮助引发了一场运动）。这个项目是及时的，不仅因为它提供了深入了解生态学的历史和科学与宗教之间的关系-这两个主题的核心重要性今天，但也因为博士伯奇现在89和机会正在减少，以记录他在这些领域的亲密经验。该项目的首席研究员是唯一有资格进行这项研究，已经完成了初步的旅行在2006年6月进行介绍性采访伯奇和概述未来的研究计划。他还联系了有关档案馆，并获得了今后查阅论文材料的许可。 该项目的主要学术价值是它对生态学史、进化思想史和进化综合史以及20世纪科学与宗教关系史的贡献。本研究的一个主要目标是探讨伯奇的怀特海过程神学，这是明确的目的是适应基督教信仰的发现和现代科学的方法，和伯奇的职业生涯在人口生物学和生态学之间的联系。第二个目标是研究伯奇如何与其他领先的生物学家，如美国的休厄尔·赖特和西奥多修斯·多布赞克西，以及C. H.沃丁顿在英国的影响，影响了他对进化与生态关系的看法，从而也影响了他的宗教哲学。该项目提出了一个工作假设，即尽管伯奇经常认为他的科学和宗教哲学追求是不同的，但它们实际上植根于共同的世界观，受到共同的道德和哲学原则的指导，因此是解决当前社会问题的共同解决方案的来源。伯奇的生态世界观主张所有生物之间存在着动态的相互联系，并呼吁年轻一代认识到，通过采用生态伦理学，他们可以避免许多工业化、技术驱动的世界所出现的问题，而不会陷入宗教保守主义和科学决定论（他认为是两极极端）等旧陷阱。虽然伯奇的综合思想是独特的，他试图解决的问题，在他的生活是真正的普遍性。今天的社会继续寻求科学追求和生态责任之间的健康关系，以及科学追求和宗教基础之间的健康关系。本论文项目将有助于拓宽我们对这些关系在过去世纪是如何发展的理解，以及它们是如何在21世纪世纪社会中达到目前的地位的。