author
Charles Joseph Patten
1870–1948
An Irish anatomist and ornithologist, he brought a scientist’s eye to the natural world and also wrote on broader questions of mind, evolution, and morality. His work ranges from detailed bird studies to more reflective nonfiction.
1 Audiobook
The passing of the phantoms : A study of evolutionary psychology and morals
by Charles Joseph Patten
About the author
Born in 1870, Charles Joseph Patten was an Irish anatomist and ornithologist whose career joined medicine, natural history, and writing. He is remembered for books on birds and for wider nonfiction that explored evolutionary psychology and morals.
His published work includes The Aquatic Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, The Story of the Birds: A Guide to the Study of Avian Structure and Habits, and The Passing of the Phantoms. That mix of subjects gives a good sense of his range: careful observation of the natural world alongside an interest in larger philosophical questions.
Patten died on June 13, 1948. For readers today, his books offer a window into an earlier era of popular science writing, shaped by both field knowledge and a broad curiosity about how living things are understood.