charles_darwin

Recommendations

Info

CHAPTER 1 OVERVIEW: THE IMPACT OF CHARLES DARWIN Why Charles Darwin Is Important Charles Darwin is one of the most important men of science of the last five hundred years. In his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859, 1 Darwin proposed what is now called the theory of evolution. This book, along with its bestknown companion The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, published in 1871, precipitated a major change in scientific thinking about the origin of life, particularly in the field of biology. (Both books are known popularly by their shortened titles The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man, respectively.) Darwin was not the first scientist to propose a theory of evolution nor was he the foremost thinker on the subject in 1859. More important, his theory had some significant flaws: it did not convince everyone of its validity, not even every scientist. Darwin tried to answer his critics by revising The Origin of Species, but he was not completely successful. Darwin is an important man of science not because his theory was foolproof, but because he solved a problem that had baffled scientists and philosophers for centuries. What was this problem? Put simply, it was the difficulty of finding enough convincing evidence to prove that one species could change into a completely different one. Scientists and philosophers called the significant changes that a plant or animal experienced mutations (whether permanent or not); if an animal, for example, became a completely new animal, scientists and philosophers called this transmutation. The question troubling some was whether transmutation ever occurred. Most people who thought about the question before the widespread dissemination of The Origin of Species
2 CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES believed transmutation could not and never had occurred. The species were fixed: the same number and type existed at the present time as had existed one or two thousand years earlier. Each species had appeared or been created at a fixed point in time. Most likely, so the thinking went, all species had been created at the same time. Special creation and the fixity of the species, as these ideas were called, were the standard explanations in the Western world for the origin and existence of life on Earth until the late-nineteenth century. It may have been the traditional view of the origin of life, but the plausibility of the fixity of the species had also been challenged. Was it really possible for thousands of years to have passed and organic life to remain exactly the same? Had nothing changed? To answer these two questions ‘‘yes’’ seemed to defy logic. Thinkers as far back as the Ancient Greeks discussed the merits of the theory. As Darwin noted in his Historical Sketch at the beginning of The Origin of Species, Aristotle (B.C.E. 384–322) wrote in one of his best-known books that, ‘‘In cases where a coincidence created a combination which seems as though it might have been arranged on purpose, the creatures, it is urged, having been suitably formed by the operation of chance, survived; otherwise they perished, and still perish....’’ 2 Darwin, who was told about the statement by the British philologist Claire Grece (1831–1905), latched on to the fact that Aristotle recognized that some change occurred in nature. 3 In fact, Darwin had misunderstood Aristotle: Aristotle was quoting a philosopher with whom he disagreed. Aristotle was no proponent of evolution. He was better known for his theory of ‘‘The Great Chain of Being,’’ the idea that living organisms could be organized from the simplest to most complex and that no organism could change its place in this ladder of progression. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the fixity of the species was a major problem in science. Geologists and paleontologists had discovered fossils of animals and plants but could not find contemporary living examples of these organisms. Scientists such as Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), who worked on classifying the species, grouping similar and related species into families and subfamilies, calculated that some species were extinct. Perhaps it was stretching credulity to argue that all life on Earth remained as it had been six thousand years before. 4 In the 1830s, the authors of the Bridgewater Treatises tried to counter challenges to the fixity of species idea by arguing that God allowed a ‘‘useful and purposeful decline’’ in nature. The publication costs of these books were paid for by the Reverend Francis Henry
Page 2 and 3: Charles Darwin and The Origin of Sp
Page 4 and 5: Charles Darwin and The Origin of Sp
Page 6: CONTENTS Series Foreword by Linda S
Page 9 and 10: viii Series Foreword Atlantic slave
Page 12 and 13: PREFACE In 1985, the Italian scient
Page 14: Preface always right. As one of Dar
Page 17 and 18: xvi Chronology 27 December: HMS Bea
Page 19 and 20: xviii September: A Monograph on the
Page 21 and 22: xx 8 March: Gregor Mendel presents
Page 23 and 24: xxii 1909 William Bateson coins the
Page 28 and 29: Overview Egerton, the Earl of Bridg
Page 30 and 31: Overview important to remember. Dar
Page 32 and 33: Overview of America. Columbus was n
Page 34 and 35: Overview in a way that humans can e
Page 36 and 37: Overview human institutions progres
Page 38: Overview 9. The elimination of a di
Page 41 and 42: 16 CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF
Page 75 and 76:
50 CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF
Page 77 and 78:
Page 79 and 80:
Page 81 and 82:
Page 83 and 84:
Page 86 and 87:
CHAPTER 4 THE RECEPTION OF DARWIN
Page 88 and 89:
The Reception of Darwin’s Theorie
Page 90 and 91:
Page 92 and 93:
Page 94 and 95:
Page 96 and 97:
Page 98 and 99:
Page 100:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 120 and 121:
BIOGRAPHIES: PERSONALITIES IMPORTAN
Page 122 and 123:
Biographies works on the subject. T
Page 124 and 125:
Biographies Systematic Description
Page 126 and 127:
Biographies declined rapidly after
Page 128 and 129:
Biographies experiments on the poll
Page 130 and 131:
Biographies Students of the Classes
Page 132 and 133:
Biographies publishing company John
Page 134 and 135:
Biographies were different: the han
Page 136 and 137:
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THE ORIGIN OF S
Page 138 and 139:
People Mentioned in The Origin of S
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
PRIMARY DOCUMENTS RELATING TO DARWI
Page 148 and 149:
Primary Documents Relating to Darwi
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176 and 177:
Page 178 and 179:
Page 180 and 181:
Page 182:
Page 185 and 186:
160 Glossary of Selected Terms up b
Page 187 and 188:
162 Glossary of Selected Terms Muta
Page 189 and 190:
164 Glossary of Selected Terms Spec
Page 192 and 193:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Darwin’s M
Page 194 and 195:
Annotated Bibliography ———. A
Page 196 and 197:
Annotated Bibliography full (with a
Page 198 and 199:
Annotated Bibliography Keynes, Rich
Page 200 and 201:
Annotated Bibliography to support M
Page 202 and 203:
Annotated Bibliography Lamarck, Jea
Page 204 and 205:
Annotated Bibliography Dawkins, Ric
Page 206 and 207:
Annotated Bibliography Shrewsbury S
Page 208 and 209:
Annotated Bibliography Quammen, Dav
Page 210 and 211:
Annotated Bibliography Islands and
Page 212 and 213:
INDEX Academie des sciences, France
Page 214 and 215:
Index The Descent of Man, 4; delay
Page 216 and 217:
Index The Origin of Species: argume
Page 218 and 219:
About the Author KEITH A. FRANCIS i
show all

charles_darwin

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?