This collection is a very multifarious collection of essays by "Darwin's Bulldog" Thomas Henry Huxley. Often, Huxley is wronly seen simply as one who simply defended Darwin and did not contribute much by way of originality. Such views are shown here to be mistaken, as we see Huxley the tireless champion of science education, Huxley the philosopher and, as the title suggests, Huxley the popularilzer.
These essays were given to popular audiences, and are equal parts science, philosophy, and social argument.
**The first five essays generally have to do with explainling how and why science is such a useful advance, and to arguing for science education as an integral part of a general educaiton in Britian. (Huxley was a great defender of science and a prime mover of getting science education into the British curriculum.)
**The nex six essays were designed to give the public broad 'science lessons' (in the vein that Dawkins or other popular writers might today). Subjects range from zoology (essay VI) to geology (essays IX, X, and XI), and even to the sociological positivism of Auguste Compte (who you will find that Huxley was not at all fond of).
** Essays XII and XIII are defences of Darwin's "Origin of Species." Strangely, in reading these essays we find that the criticisms (and defenses) of 150 years ago are often the same as those today. Huxley defends Darwinian evolution from those who accuse him of teleological thinking, 'design theorists', and those who accuse evolution of being incapable of producing design if not by design (130 years before William Dembski!).
The last essay (along with remarks made in several other essays) offers a good window into Huxley's view of materialism. Huxley was a materialist, but not in the way often described. On the one hand, Huxley certainly thought that the only way to find reliable knowledge was via science and sense-evidence. Huxley, though DID NOT believe that science could say, as anything better than faith, that nature was all there is. In this, the final essay ("On Descartes' 'Discourse Touching the Method of Using One's Reason Rightly and of Seeking Scientific Truth"), is a good segue into Huxley's "Agsnosticism" and "Evolution and Ethics."
All in all, this is a very good collection of essays that offer a sample of Huxley's wide variety of thoughts and opinions. Not only do we see Uuxley from many different angles (philosophical, scientific, political) but we also see his strangths as a writer; these popular essays are very well written and examples of clear expression.
Good collection for any Huxley fan.
(The only warning I have is that the table of contents at the beginning of this collection are not "hyperlinked," so one must scoll through the entire book to get to any particluar essay.)
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