title: 'The art itself is nature': Darwin, domestic varieties and the scientific revolution.
abstract: Common to both the scientific and Darwinian revolutions were discussions challenging the distinction between art and nature. Was art a part of nature? Could art be used as a model for nature? This intellectual congruence, however, is more than just nominal. Charles Darwin and Asa Gray, for example, were well-aware of the 17th century debates which preceded them through the works of such revered English writers as William Shakespeare and Thomas Browne. Furthermore, they used their understandings of these debates to inform and express their own thinking about the relation between artificial and natural selection.
authors.affiliation: Philosophy Department, University of British Columbia, 1866 Main Mall, Buchanan E370, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z1; Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, 1 Oxford Street, Science Center 371, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. Electronic address: inkpen@fas.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: S Andrew
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Inkpen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D001154:Art / Q000266:history*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005060:Europe; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D019021:Natural History / Q000266:history*; D019368:Nature; D012106:Research / Q000266:history; D012586:Science / Q000266:history*; D012641:Selection, Genetic