Audiobook · read by volunteers
Has a Frog a Soul?
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
Read by Carl Manchester · 1 chapter · 16 min
About the book
Does a frog have a soul? The question sounds like a joke, but in 1870 it was a serious matter in the philosophical debates of the day. Thomas Henry Huxley, known as Darwin's Bulldog for his spirited defence of evolution, addressed it in a talk to the Metaphysical Society, and the result is one of his best-known pieces outside biology. Starting from experiments on frogs whose brains had been removed, he asks what they reveal about consciousness, the body and the machinery of the nervous system. Huxley writes with wit, clarity and a taste for provocative argument, and the talk is still read by students of philosophy. Carl Manchester reads it in about twenty minutes.
Introduction
Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) was an English biologist who became the most prominent public defender of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. His combative style earned him the nickname Darwin's Bulldog, and he is also remembered for coining the word agnostic. Beyond his scientific work, he was a skilled writer and speaker who believed that science should be explained to the general public.
Has a Frog a Soul? is a paper he delivered to the Metaphysical Society in 1870, a London group that brought together scientists, clergy and philosophers to debate questions of belief and knowledge. It considers experiments on frogs, some of which continued to move and respond after their brains had been removed, and it asks what such results suggest about the mind and the nature of consciousness. Huxley approaches the matter in a careful, step-by-step manner, but his purpose is also to challenge assumptions of his listeners.
The recording consists of a single section of about twenty minutes, read by LibriVox volunteer Carl Manchester. Some of the physiological details belong to the science of the nineteenth century, and the experiments will strike many modern listeners as harsh, but the philosophical questions remain lively. It offers a good example of Victorian scientific writing at its most engaging, and an excellent short introduction to debates about the mind that continue today. The paper is short and quick, and Huxley's liveliness as a speaker comes through very well when it is read aloud, which makes it a useful first taste of his work.
Public domain
Thomas Henry Huxley died in 1895: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text