Friedrich Albert Lange on neo-Kantianism, socialist Darwinism, and a psychology without a soul.

Of mice and men: evolution and the socialist utopia. William Morris, H.G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw.

During the British socialist revival of the 1880s competing theories of evolution were central to disagreements about strategy for social change. In News from Nowhere (1891), William Morris had portrayed socialism as the result of Lamarckian processes, and imagined a non-Malthusian future. H.G. Wells, an enthusiastic admirer of Morris in the early days of the movement, became disillusioned as a...

Economics Discussion Paper 2012-6 REVISITING THE SOCIALIST CALCULATION DEBATE: THE ROLE OF MARKETS AND FINANCE IN HAYEK’S RESPONSE TO LANGE’S CHALLENGE

In the early twentieth century, a range of writers produced visions of a socialist economy whose distinguishing characteristic was an allocation of resources using a ‘technical’ perspective. In the 1930s, Oskar Lange took up the challenge of Ludwig von Mises’ claim of the ‘impossibility’ of constructing a socialist economy on such an engineering basis. He readily acceded to the need for efficie...

Philosophical Historiography in Marburg Neo-Kantianism: The Example of Cassirerâ•Žs Erkenntnisproblem

The search for purpose in a post-Darwinian universe: George Bernard Shaw, 'creative evolution', and Shavian eugenics: 'The dark side of the force'.

The Irish playwright and socialist George Bernard Shaw has been of marginal concern for historians of biology because his vitalist Lamarckism has been viewed as out of step with contemporary science. However, Julian Huxley and J.B.S. Haldane were certainly of the opinion that Shaw was a man of influence in this regard and took pains to counter his views in their own attempts to engage the publi...

Reassessing Neo-Kantianism. Another Look at Hermann Cohen’s Kant Interpretation