DARWIN AND DARWINISM

John Collier. Charles Robert Darwin. 1883. National Portrait Gallery, London.

I. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)A. Family

1. Middling Sorts2. Science and the

Birmingham Lunar Society (1765-1813)

3. Abolition

Charles Darwin, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809-1882, ed. Nora Barlow (London, 1958), pg. 10.

I. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)A. FamilyB. University

1. University of Edinburgh (1825-1827) and Medicinea. John Edmonstone and taxidermyb. Plinian Society and natural history (joins in 1826)

2. Christ’s College, Cambridge (1828-1831) and Theology

J. Palmer Clarke. Darwin’s Room at Christ’s College. 1909. Christ’s College Magazine.

I. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)A. FamilyB. University

1. University of Edinburgh (1825-1827)a. John Edmonstone and taxidermyb. Plinian Society and natural history (joins in 1826)

2. Christ’s College, Cambridge (1828-1831)3. Natural History in Darwin’s Youth

a. Creationb. Earth approximately 6000 years oldc. Fixity of speciesd. Providence and the Clockwork universee. William Paley and Natural Theology (1802)

[I]n my last year I worked with some earnestness for my final degree of B.A., and brushed up my Classics together with a little Algebra and Euclid, which latter gave me much pleasure, as it did whilst at school. In order to pass the B.A. examination, it was, also, necessary to get up Paley's Evidences of Christianity, and his Moral Philosophy. This was done in a thorough manner, and I am convinced that I could have written out the whole of the Evidences with perfect correctness, but not of course in the clear language of Paley. The logic of this book and as I may add of his Natural Theology gave me as much delight as did Euclid. The careful study of these works, without attempting to learn any part by rote, was the only part of the Academical Course which, as I then felt and as I still believe, was of the least use to me in the education of my mind. I did not at that time trouble myself about Paley's premises; and taking these on trust I was charmed and convinced by the long line of argumentation.

Charles Darwin, Autobiography, ed. Barlow (1958), p. 598-59

The marks of design are too strong to be got over. Design must have had a designer. That designer must have been a person. That person is God.

William Paley, Natural Theology (1829 [1802]), pp. 5, 249.

. . . when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive. . . that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it. . . . the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker -- that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use . . . .

I. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)A. FamilyB. UniversityC. Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836)

I. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)A. FamilyB. UniversityC. Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836)

“BAHIA, OR SAN SALVADOR. BRAZIL, Feb. 29th. -- The day has passed delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood. The noise from the insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred yards from the shore; yet within the recesses of the forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.”

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. Influences1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

a. Physiological change b. Comparative anatomy

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. Influences1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)2. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) and Zoonomia (1794)

Organic life beneath the shoreless wavesWas born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves;First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;These, as successive generations bloom,New powers acquire and larger limbs assume;Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,And breathing realms of fin and feet and wing.

The Temple of Nature (1803)

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. Influences1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)2. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) and Zoonomia (1794)3. Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la

Marck (1744-1829)a) Le pouvoir de la vie (complexifying force): a natural

process through which organisms became more complex

b) L'influence des circonstances (adaptive force): organisms adapt to their environment, passing these traits to next generation

See Stephen Jay Gould, The structure of evolutionary theory (2002), esp. pp 186-89.

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. Influences1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)2. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) and Zoonomia (1794)3. Lamarck (1744-1829)4. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)

Population

Carrying Capacity

Resources

Thomas Malthus’s Ideas about Population

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. Influences1. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)2. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) and Zoonomia (1794)3. Lamarck (1744-1829)4. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)5. Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

a. Problems of geology: fossils, extinctions, stratigraphy

b. Principles of Geology, 3 vols. (1830-33)c. Uniformitarianismd. Old Earth Theory (but not that old, since he

proposed .3 billion years as opposed to 4.54 billion years)

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. InfluencesB. Darwin’s Contribution

1. Defining the process of Evolution: Natural Selectiona. In any environment, there are limited resources for

which organisms competeb. There are mutations in species from generation to

generation, some beneficial and some harmfulc. Those with traits more useful for survival will be

better equipped to survive and reproduce, passing these traits to their offspring

d. Over long periods of time, these adaptations may lead to new species

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth Century

A. InfluencesB. Darwin’s Contribution

1. Defining the process of Evolution: Natural Selection2. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/11/2/quicktim

e/e_s_4.html

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth CenturyIII. Darwinism: Readings and Misreadings

I. Charles Darwin’s YouthII. Natural History in the Early Nineteenth CenturyIII. Darwinism: Readings and MisreadingsIV. For more information, see

http://darwin-online.org.uk/