Robert Richards

Robert J. Richards is the Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine, and Professor in the Departments of Philosophy, History, Psychology, and in the Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science; and he is director of the Fishbein Center for History of Science. He received his degree from Chicago in 1978. He does research and teaches in history and philosophy of biology and psychology.  This includes particular interest in evolutionary biopsychology, ethology, sociobiology, evolutionary ethics, philosophy of history, and German Romanticism.  He is the author or editor of several books, and many articles, some of which are listed below.  

CV (PDF)


Contact

office: Social Sciences Research Building, Room 205
office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
office phone: 773/702-8343
email: r-richards@uchicago.edu

Department of History
Department of Psychology
The Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science
The Fishbein Center for History of Science

website: http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6

Robert Richard's recorded interviews and lectures

Selected Publications

  • The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2008). (Link)
  • The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2002). Winner of the Laing Prize. (Link)
  • The Meaning of Evolution: The Morphological Construction and Ideological Reconstruction of Darwin’s Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992). (Link)
  • Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).  Winner of the History of Science Pfizer Prize. (Link)
  • Cambridge Companion to the Origin of Species, ed. with Michael Ruse (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2008). (Link)
  • Darwinian Heresies, ed. with Abigail Lustig and Michael Ruse (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2004).
  • “Haeckel’s Embryos:  Fraud Not Proven,” Biology and Philosophy, 24 (2009): 147-154. (PDF).
  • “Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Its Moral Purpose,” Cambridge Companion to Darwin’s Origin of Species, eds. Robert J. Richards and Michael Ruse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008). (PDF)
  • “The Moral Grammar of Narratives in History of Biology,” Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology, eds. Michael Ruse and David Hull (Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 2007). (PDF)
  • “Nature is the Poetry of Mind, or How Schelling Solved Goethe’s Kantian Problems,” in The Kantian Legacy in Nineteenth Century Science (Cambridge:  MIT Press, 2006).
  • “Darwin on Mind, Morals, and Emotions,” In Cambridge Companion to Darwin, eds. J. Hodge and G. Radick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 92-115. (PDF)
  • “Darwin's Metaphysics of Mind,” in Darwin and Philosophy, ed. Vittorior Hoesle and Christian Illies (Notre Dame:  Notre Dame University Press, 2005). (PDF)
  • “Kant and Blumenbach on the Bildungstrieb: A Historical Misunderstanding,” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, 31(2000): 11-32. (PDF)
  • “Michael Ruse's Design for Living,” Journal of the History of Biology, Volume 37, Number 1, 2004 , pp. 25-38(14) (Link)
  • “Darwin's Romantic Biology The Foundation of His Evolutionary Ethics”
    in Biology and the Foundation of Ethics Ed. J. Maienschein, M. Ruse (Link)
  • “Christian Wolff's Prolegomena to Empirical and Rational Psychology: Translation and Commentary,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 124, No. 3 (Jun. 30, 1980), pp. 227-239 (Link)
  • “The Epistemology of Historical Interpretation Progressivity and Recapitulation in Darwin's Theory,” in Biology and Epistemology Ed. Richard Creath, Jane Maienschein (Link)
  • “Rhapsodies on a Cat-Piano, or Johann Christian Reil and the Foundations of Romantic Psychiatry,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 24, No. 3 (Spring, 1998), pp. 700-736 (Link)

Please see CV (PDF) for a complete list of publications.

Selected Reviews of Robert Richards' Work

  • Author(s) of Review: Daniel C. Dennett
    Reviewed Work(s): Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior by Robert J. Richards, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Sep., 1989), pp. 540-543 (Link)
  • Author(s) of Review:  P. D. Smith
    Reviewed Work(s):  The Tragic Sense of Life:  Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought by Robert J. Richards, The Times Literary Supplement, 25 July 2008, pp. 12-13.

Reviews of work and many papers can also be accessed at  http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6

Recent Courses

20600/30600. Philosophy of History: Historical Explanation
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: Third- or fourth-year standing.See History offerings in the College Catalog. (B) Autumn 2006.

20610/30610. Goethe: Literature, Science and Philosophy
Open to college and grad students. This lecture-discussion course will examine Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's intellectual development, from the time he wrote Sorrows of a Young Werther through the final stages of Faust. Along the way, we will read a selection of Goethe's plays, poetry, and travel literature. We will also examine his scientific work, especially his theory of color and his morphological theories. On the philosophical side, we will discuss Goethe's coming to terms with Kant (especially the latter's third Critique) and his adoption of Schelling's transcendental idealism. The theme uniting the exploration of the various works of Goethe will be the unity of the artistic and scientific understanding of nature, especially as he exemplified that unity in "the eternal feminine." German is not required, but helpful. Autumn 2007.

20701/30701. German Romanticism: Science, Philosophy, Literature
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: Open to third- and fourth-year College students with consent.. This is a lecture-discussion seminar that investigates the formation of the idea of the Romantic in literature, philosophy, and science during the age of Goethe. The works of the following will be discussed: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Schlegel brothers, Novalis, Schleiermacher, Schiller, the Humboldt brothers, and Goethe. (V). Winter 2006.

22810/32810. History and Philosophy of Psychology
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: Third- and fourth-year standing and consent of instructor. This lecture-discussion course will trace the development of psychology from the early modern period through the establishment of behaviorism in the 20th century. In the early period, we will read Descartes and Berkeley, both of whom contributed to ideas about the psychology of perception. Then we will jump to the 19th century, especially examining the perceptual psychology in the laboratory of Wundt, and follow some threads of the development of cognitive psychology in the work of William James. The course will conclude with the behavioristic revolution inaugurated by Chicago's own John Watson and expanded by F. B. Skinner. Winter 2004.

24300/34300. Evolution of Mind and Morality: 19th to 21st Centuries
Open to college and grad students. Prerequisites: PQ: Third- or fourth-year standing. This lecture-discussion course will focus on theories of the evolution of mind and moral behavior. We will begin with Spencer's and Darwin's conception of mental and moral evolution, examine the psychological status of these ideas during the last part of the century in the work of William James, then jump to the last part of the 20th century, examining the development of sociobiology. The second part of the course will concentrate on the central features of evolutionary psychology, as that new discipline has come to be known, and on contemporary theories of the evolution of ethical behavior and rational cognition. Winter 2007.

25100. Evolutionary Theory and Its Role in the Human Sciences
Open to college students. Prerequisites: Third- or fourth-year. The course's aim is two-fold: 1) an examination of the origins and development of Darwin's theory from the early 19th century to the present; and 2) a selective investigation of the ways various disciplines of the human sciences (sociology, psychology, anthropology, ethics, politics, economics) have used evolutionary ideas. Winter 2008.

28500/38500. Darwin's Origin of Species
Open to college and grad students. This lecture/discussion course traces the development of Darwin's theory of evolution through the early stages (just after the Beagle voyage) to his Origin of Species. The principal focus of the course is on the Origin, its several editions, and the debates concerning the theory of evolution by natural selection. We'll be especially concerned to assess the logical and rhetorical structure of Darwin's argument. We will also consider the status of the contemporary alternative to the Darwin's theory, namely, Intelligent Design. *Special note: Additional crosslist: FNDL 23500. Autumn 2005.