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

科学史上的科学和社会论文改进拨款是一项资金申请，用于资助完成一篇关于L.Charles Birch的生平和工作的博士论文所需的旅费和研究费用。L.Charles Birch是著名的人口生物学家、生态学家、哲学家和宗教思想家，他发明了这个短语(并帮助引发了一场走向生态可持续发展的运动)。这个项目是及时的，不仅是因为它提供了对生态历史和科学与宗教之间关系的洞察--这两个主题都是当今最重要的话题--还因为伯奇博士现在89岁了，记录他在这些领域的亲密经历的机会越来越少。该项目的CO-PI是唯一有资格进行这项研究的人，他已经在2006年6月完成了与Birch的初步访问，并概述了未来的研究计划。他还联系了相关档案馆，并获得了未来查阅学位论文材料的许可。该项目的主要学术价值是它对20世纪生态史、进化思想史和进化综合史以及科学与宗教关系史的贡献。这项研究的一个主要目标是探索伯奇的怀特黑德过程神学与伯奇在人口生物学和生态学方面的职业生涯之间的联系，该神学明确旨在使基督教信仰适应现代科学的发现和方法。第二个目标是考察伯奇与其他领先的生物学家，如美国的Sewall Wright和Theodsius Dobzhanksy，以及英国的C.H.Waddington的工作，如何影响他对进化论和生态学之间关系的观点，从而也影响了他的宗教哲学。该项目提出了一个可行的假设，即尽管伯奇经常认为他的科学追求和他的宗教哲学追求是截然不同的，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，因此是当前社会问题的共同解决方案的来源。伯奇的生态世界观宣称，所有生物之间存在着一种动态的相互联系，并呼吁年轻一代认识到，通过采用生态伦理，他们可以避免许多问题，这些问题是工业和技术驱动的世界的症状，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。虽然伯奇的思想综合是独一无二的，但他一生中试图解决的问题确实是世界性的。今天的社会继续在其科学追求和生态责任之间，以及在其科学追求和宗教基础之间寻求健康的关系。这一论文项目将有助于扩大我们对这些关系在过去一个世纪中是如何发展的，以及它们如何在21世纪的社会中达到今天的地位的理解。

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.