charles_darwin

6
CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
longer the purview of dedicated aristocratic or clerical amateurs.
Darwin was doing his research and writing at the time of these
changes. Despite the competition with other scientists who were trying
to earn a reputation, Darwin became one of the preeminent scientists
of his era.
Darwin, who had an unassuming personality, acknowledged the
importance of the research of fellow scientists, professional and amateur.
Darwin never boasted about the uniqueness of his ideas. The
Origin of Species may be one of the most innovative works of science,
particularly in the way the argument is put together, but Darwin was
careful to give credit to all the breeders, scientists, and philosophers
upon whose ideas he built his theory. In fact, The Origin of Species is
a veritable who’s who of scientists in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. Some of these men—Darwin does not mention any
women—although famous at the time are forgotten except in books
dealing with the history of science. The work of men such as John
Ray (1627–1702), Antoine Laurent Jussieu (1748–1836), and George
Bentham (1800–1884) was critical in the development of a system
for classifying plants, but that fact is probably only appreciated
among a small group of scientists today. 14 Darwin, on the other
hand, recognized and applauded their work. Darwin knew that he
was a member of a community of scientists; he knew that this social
network made it possible for him to work out his theories.
Darwin’s use of the research of fellow scientists is one of the
most fascinating features of The Origin of Species. Darwin quoted
from their work even if they did not support a theory of evolution.
Louis Agassiz (1807–1873) and Richard Owen (1804–1892), both
outspoken opponents of applying evolutionary theories to organic
life, were mentioned a combined twenty-eight times in The Origin of
Species. What these men had to say about comparative anatomy was
important, and Darwin did not ignore it or brush it aside. Knowing
something of the ideas and research of Darwin’s contemporaries
makes it easier to understand The Origin of Species. The genius
of Darwin was that he took a wide and seemingly unrelated group
of ideas and molded them into an overarching thesis: the theory of
evolution.
The Impact of Charles Darwin’s Theory
But Charles Darwin was not simply a clever scientist: he is a
symbol. Darwin’s name is associated closely with the theory of evolution
just as Christopher Columbus is associated with the discovery