Hiram Caton
Encyclopedia
Hiram Caton was Professor of politics and history at Griffith University
, Brisbane
, Australia
, until his retirement. He is an ethicist
and AIDS denialist, a Fellow
of the Australian Institute of Biology (since 1994), a founding member of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences
, and was an officer of the International Society for Human Ethology. He held a National Humanities Fellowship at the National Humanities Center
in 1982-83. He was the inaugural Professor of Humanities at Griffith University
in Brisbane
, and later the Professor of Politics and History and Head of the School of Applied Ethics there.
and received a PhD
degree from Yale
with an (earned) D.Litt
degree for his work in modern history.
s into the social sciences, especially political science.
He achieved notoriety as an AIDS denialist in the mid 1990s for his book The AIDS Mirage (1994), in which he charged Donald Francis with "inventing a viral epidemic" in 1982 at the Centers for Disease Control. However, his most significant book has been The Politics of Progress: The Origins and Development of the Commercial Republic, 1600-1835 in which he explores what he considers to be the political forces surrounding the application of technology to subduing nature. Modern science, he argues, was born more from these political forces than from the ideological ones (such as the Protestant Reformation) that he feels are more usually credited with it.
The book was reviewed in more than 20 professional journals. Some reviewers stressed that it set forth a new interpretation of what drove the creation of capitalism, partly by tapping little-known historical sources. In it, Caton attributes the key phase to events and leaders in France, the Netherlands, and England in the 1650-1700 period. It offers interpretations of the French Revolution, of the founding of the United States of America, of Adam Smith
's Wealth of Nations, and of the origin of the legend of wicked capitalism. Caton argues that Smith's conception of economics was pre-industrial (it failed to recognize that industrial technology had become a commodity) and states that the wicked capitalism legend was created in the 1820-1840 period by a clique of factory owners. In the book, Caton rejects the belief that the human species is evolving to a higher type.
In The Origin of Subjectivity: An Essay on Descartes, Caton argues that Descartes based his epistemology on optics ('optical epistemology'); and that he used his metaphysics 'as a flag to cover the goods'-- a rationalist philosophy dedicated to 'the mastery and possession of nature'.
Caton's publications on Margaret Mead
, Derek Freeman
, and the Samoa controversy
are part of the standard literature. His edited volume, The Samoa Reader: Anthropologists Take Stock, remains the one comprehensive reader on the subject. Among his contributions to the volume are two studies on Freeman's psychology. They were featured in 2005 in a lead article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Also in 2005, Caton was a consultant to the BBC
for its documentary on the Freeman-Mead controversy, Tales from the Jungle.
His current work focuses on Charles Darwin
. As a former officer of the International Society of Human Ethology, he worked to integrate the Society into the web of activities celebrating the bicentenary of Darwin's birth (2009). Caton also recently published a reinterpretation of Darwin's contribution to the establishment of evolution. He has also devised a new interpretation of Darwin's famous illness, which he presented at the ISHE conference in Detroit, August 2006. This research is to be included in The Darwin Legend.
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, until his retirement. He is an ethicist
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
and AIDS denialist, a Fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of the Australian Institute of Biology (since 1994), a founding member of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences
Association for Politics and the Life Sciences
The Association for Politics and the Life Sciences was formed in 1981 and exists to study the field of biopolitics as a subfield of political science. APLS owns and publishes an academic peer-reviewed journal, called Politics and the Life Sciences , semi-annually in March and September...
, and was an officer of the International Society for Human Ethology. He held a National Humanities Fellowship at the National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center
The National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities. It is the only major independent institute for advanced study in all fields of the humanities in the United States. The NHC operates as a privately incorporated nonprofit and is not part of any...
in 1982-83. He was the inaugural Professor of Humanities at Griffith University
Griffith University
Griffith University is a public, coeducational, research university located in the southeastern region of the Australian state of Queensland. The university has five satellite campuses located in the Gold Coast, Logan City and in the Brisbane suburbs of Mount Gravatt, Nathan and South Bank. Current...
in Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, and later the Professor of Politics and History and Head of the School of Applied Ethics there.
Education
Caton studied at the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
and received a PhD
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
degree from Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
with an (earned) D.Litt
Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters is a university academic degree, often a higher doctorate which is frequently awarded as an honorary degree in recognition of outstanding scholarship or other merits.-Commonwealth:...
degree for his work in modern history.
Research
Caton's work has been concerned with ethics in the sciences (particularly in life sciences and medicine), the history of ideas, and on biological bases for individual, social, and political behaviour. Something of a polymath, he has published some 175 articles, across six or seven fields—medical ethics and bioethics, human ethology, modern political and economic history, anthropology (with special attention to the Freeman-Mead controversy), philosophy (with emphasis on rationalism and positivism), crowd studies, identity psychology, and problems of the integration of biological/evolutionary factorEvolutionary factor
Evolutionary factors in biology are all factors that modify the gene pool in the evolutionary process.The most concise definition comes from population genetics:...
s into the social sciences, especially political science.
He achieved notoriety as an AIDS denialist in the mid 1990s for his book The AIDS Mirage (1994), in which he charged Donald Francis with "inventing a viral epidemic" in 1982 at the Centers for Disease Control. However, his most significant book has been The Politics of Progress: The Origins and Development of the Commercial Republic, 1600-1835 in which he explores what he considers to be the political forces surrounding the application of technology to subduing nature. Modern science, he argues, was born more from these political forces than from the ideological ones (such as the Protestant Reformation) that he feels are more usually credited with it.
The book was reviewed in more than 20 professional journals. Some reviewers stressed that it set forth a new interpretation of what drove the creation of capitalism, partly by tapping little-known historical sources. In it, Caton attributes the key phase to events and leaders in France, the Netherlands, and England in the 1650-1700 period. It offers interpretations of the French Revolution, of the founding of the United States of America, of Adam Smith
Adam Smith
Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
's Wealth of Nations, and of the origin of the legend of wicked capitalism. Caton argues that Smith's conception of economics was pre-industrial (it failed to recognize that industrial technology had become a commodity) and states that the wicked capitalism legend was created in the 1820-1840 period by a clique of factory owners. In the book, Caton rejects the belief that the human species is evolving to a higher type.
In The Origin of Subjectivity: An Essay on Descartes, Caton argues that Descartes based his epistemology on optics ('optical epistemology'); and that he used his metaphysics 'as a flag to cover the goods'-- a rationalist philosophy dedicated to 'the mastery and possession of nature'.
Caton's publications on Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead
Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
, Derek Freeman
Derek Freeman
John Derek Freeman was a New Zealand anthropologist best known for his criticism of Margaret Mead's work in Samoan society, as described in her 1928 ethnography Coming of Age in Samoa...
, and the Samoa controversy
Coming of Age in Samoa
Coming of Age in Samoa is a book by American anthropologist Margaret Mead based upon her research and study of youth on the island of Ta'u in the Samoa Islands which primarily focused on adolescent girls. Mead was 23 years old when she carried out her field work in Samoa...
are part of the standard literature. His edited volume, The Samoa Reader: Anthropologists Take Stock, remains the one comprehensive reader on the subject. Among his contributions to the volume are two studies on Freeman's psychology. They were featured in 2005 in a lead article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Also in 2005, Caton was a consultant to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
for its documentary on the Freeman-Mead controversy, Tales from the Jungle.
His current work focuses on Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. As a former officer of the International Society of Human Ethology, he worked to integrate the Society into the web of activities celebrating the bicentenary of Darwin's birth (2009). Caton also recently published a reinterpretation of Darwin's contribution to the establishment of evolution. He has also devised a new interpretation of Darwin's famous illness, which he presented at the ISHE conference in Detroit, August 2006. This research is to be included in The Darwin Legend.