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Animal cunning: deceptive nature and truthful science in Charles Kingsley’s natural theology

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posted on 2023-06-09, 00:45 authored by Will AbberleyWill Abberley
Charles Kingsley's natural theology hinged upon his faith in nature's “truthfulness.” He conceptualized nature as a divine text that both exemplified truthfulness and preached it symbolically. However, this view was undermined as modern science increasingly revealed ruthless deception and parasitism throughout the organic world. Faced with such seemingly amoral facts, Kingsley often located divine truthfulness less in nature itself than in the naturalist studying it. Yet moralizing scientific habits in this way would ultimately undermine Kingsley's argument for moral meaning in the natural world. His efforts to conflate moral and factual truth were bound up with his struggle to defend his authority as an interpreter of nature as emerging secular science threatened to both usurp and invalidate this authority.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Victorian Studies

ISSN

0042-5222

Publisher

Indiana University Press

Issue

1

Volume

58

Page range

34-56

Department affiliated with

  • English Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2016-04-04

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2017-04-01

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2016-04-04

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