Extraterrestrial Life Debate, Antiquity to 1915: A Source Book

APPENDIX. The History of Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life Research Program

APPENDIX The History of Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life Research Program The following short essay can be read as an invitation to engage in a developing research program, the focus of which is the history of ideas of extraterrestrial life. The first point to be made is that ideas of extraterrestrial life do have a history! Many persons assume that the question of extraterrestrial life arose only in the twentieth century. In fact, a number of historical studies1 show that such ideas have a history extending from the ancient Greeks to the present.2 Moreover, these ideas have been a subject of historical study for more than a century. Among those 522 1. Four major studies can be cited at this point as examples of this research program: Steven J. Dick, Plurality of Worlds: The Origins of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate from Democritus to Kant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982); Karl S. Guthke, The Last Frontier: Imagining Other Worlds from the Copernican Revolution to Modern Science Fiction (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990); Michael J. Crowe, The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750–1900: The Idea of a Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); Steven J. Dick, The Biological Universe: The Twentieth-Century Extraterrestrial Life Debate and the Limits of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). 2. For a listing of ca. 130 books published on this subject before 1917, see Crowe, Extraterrestrial Life Debate, 646–57. who in the period before 1980 published significant writings on this history were Camille Flammarion, Pierre Duhem, Arthur Lovejoy, Marjorie Hope Nicolson, and Stanley Jaki.3 The primary goal of this research program is to construct an accurate history of the ideas that humanity has had about extraterrestrial intelligent life (hereafter EIL). Included under humanity are both leading intellectuals in any area of learning and also members of the public. To be candid, nearly all the research in this area has focused not on the entire human family, but rather on authors in the Western tradition. The history of ideas of extraterrestrial life outside the western tradition awaits its historian. The writings of scientists, especially astronomers, deserves special attention in the construction of this history. One reason for this is that their ideas about extraterrestrials have had a strong influence on others. Moreover, the issue of whether extraterrestrials exist is on the first level scientific in nature. Although scientists are a group of special importance, other groups of intellectuals deserve considerable attention . Many persons concerned about religion have taken a strong interest in this issue, which is loaded with implications for such questions as the nature of the divine and whether, as Christianity teaches, the divine became incarnate on this planet and undertook to redeem its inhabitants (and possibly intelligent beings on other planets). Philosophers have also been of much importance, partly because philosophy takes as one of its tasks dealing with large questions about life and the universe. Another area of philosophical relevance concerns the proper methodology for deciding issues regarding extraterrestrials. Literary figures, especially poets, have given much attention to ideas of extraterrestrial life and have thereby influenced popular beliefs regarding such beings. Learning how poets, for example, have reacted to ideas of EIL can teach us much about humanity. Science fiction writers have also had a major role in the extraterrestrial life debate. This is obvious, but what is less clear is whether the writings of such authors teach us more about what they can imagine than about what humans believe. In pursing this program, a number of questions need to be kept in mind. • To what extent and in what ways do astronomical ideas about EIL influence religious and literary authors? Do these authors give serious and informed consideration to what the scientists are saying? a p p e n d i x 523 3. For references to the relevant writings of these authors, see the bibliography at the end of this volume. • Do religious or philosophical issues or concerns influence what scientists do and claim? How in general does belief about extraterrestrial life influence science ? This may seem an unpromising question to ask, but numerous cases can be cited where beliefs about extraterrestrials have drawn people to astronomy or provided financial support for astronomers, astronomical writers, or observatories . Allied to this is the question of the role that ideas of extraterrestrial life have played in the popularization...