Realism, Ethics and Secularism : Essays on Victorian Literature and Science (Paperback)

1. Introduction; Part I. The Subject Broached: Otherness, Epistemology, and Ethics: 1. George Eliot and the hypothesis of reality; Part II. Ethics Without God, or, Can 'Is' be 'Ought': 2. Is life worth living?; 3. Ruskin and Darwin and the matter of matter; 4. Scientific discourse as an alternative to faith; 5. In defense of positivism; 6. How science isn't literature: the importance of differences; Part III. Literature, Secularity, and the Quest for Otherness: 7. Victorian realism; 8. Dickens, secularism and agency; 9. The heartbeat of the squirrel; 10. Real toads in imaginary gardens, or vice versa.