Of course science literally can be studied apart from the rest. But to what end? I do not presume to speak for D_O here, but my reply is that it is no mish-mash to teach Darwin as an irreplaceable part of the history of science, without whom contemporary biological science could not, in large measure, be practiced. This does not solve the larger question of the place of that biological science within the whole of what we as individual humans or as a society do. If you choose not to find such questions worth your while, so be it, but they continue to occupy a significant portion of my time.