On the Origin of Theories: Charles Darwin’s Vocabulary of Method

Abstract

Abstract This is an essay on the origin of theories. It argues that methodology can do more than shape scientific theories—sometimes, vocabularies of method become such theories. The origin of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is a case in point: Darwin’s well-known attention to methodological matters not only framed but bled into his theory of nature. A careful student of contemporary methodology, Darwin sought guidance for using a controversial tool in the scientific world in which he came of age: the hypothesis. In the process of reading the works of John Herschel and William Whewell, Darwin turned nature itself into a man of science. The hypotheses and testing of scientific practice were mirrored in the variations and selection of the natural world. Though unintentional, Darwin’s naturalization of a vocabulary of method helped pave the way for applications of evolutionary theory to the study of the human mind and, completing the circle, to the philosophy of science. Considering the role of vocabularies of method in the origin of theories suggests new directions for the study of cognitive history and the power of language to transform the historical imagination.