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Charles Darwin

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In his lifetime Charles Darwin gained international fame as a controversial and influential scientist.

Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882) was a British naturalist who achieved lasting fame as the originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection and sexual selection.

He developed his interest in natural history while studying first medicine, then theology, at university. Darwin's five-year voyage on the Beagle brought him eminence as a geologist and fame as a popular author. His biological observations led him to study the transmutation of species and develop his theory of natural selection in 1838. Fully aware of the likely reaction, he confided only in close friends and continued his research to meet anticipated objections, but in 1858 the information that Alfred Russel Wallace now had a similar theory forced early joint publication of Darwin's theory.

His 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (usually abbreviated to The Origin of Species) established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific theory of diversification in nature. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, continued his research, and wrote a series of books on plants and animals, including humankind, notably The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. His last book was about earthworms.

In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to William Herschel and Isaac Newton.

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Religious views

Main article: Charles Darwin's views on religion
The 1851 death of Darwin's daughter, Annie, was the final step in pushing an already doubting Darwin away from the idea of a beneficent God.

Charles Darwin came from a Nonconformist background. Though several members of his family were Freethinkers, openly lacking conventional religious beliefs, he did not initially doubt the literal truth of the Bible. He attended a Church of England school, then at Cambridge studied Anglican theology to become a clergyman and was fully convinced by William Paley's teleological argument that design in nature proved the existence of God. However, his beliefs began to shift during his time on board HMS Beagle. He questioned what he saw—wondering, for example, at beautiful deep-ocean creatures created where no one could see them, and shuddering at the sight of a wasp paralysing caterpillars as live food for its eggs; he saw the latter as contradicting Paley's vision of beneficent design. While on the Beagle Darwin was quite orthodox and would quote the Bible as an authority on morality, but had come to see the history in the Old Testament as being false and untrustworthy.

Upon his return, he investigated transmutation of species. He knew that his clerical naturalist friends thought this a bestial heresy undermining miraculous justifications for the social order and knew that such revolutionary ideas were especially unwelcome at a time when the Church of England's established position was under attack from radical Dissenters and atheists. While secretly developing his theory of natural selection, Darwin even wrote of religion as a tribal survival strategy, though he still believed that God was the ultimate lawgiver. His belief continued to dwindle over the time, and with the death of his daughter Annie in 1851, Darwin finally lost all faith in Christianity. He continued to give support to the local church and help with parish work, but on Sundays would go for a walk while his family attended church. In later life, when asked about his religious views, he wrote that he had never been an Atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God, and that generally "an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind."

Charles Darwin recounted in his biography of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin how false stories were circulated claiming that Erasmus had called for Jesus on his deathbed. Charles concluded by writing "Such was the state of Christian feeling in this country [in 1802].... We may at least hope that nothing of the kind now prevails." Despite this hope, very similar stories were circulated following Darwin's own death, most prominently the "Lady Hope Story", published in 1915 which claimed he had converted on his sickbed. Such stories have been heavily propagated by some Christian groups, to the extent of becoming urban legends, though the claims were refuted by Darwin's children and have been dismissed as false by historians.

Legacy

Charles Darwin's theories had an enormous effect on many fields of science.

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution based upon natural selection changed the thinking of countless fields of study from biology to anthropology. His work established that "evolution" had occurred: not necessarily that it was by natural or sexual selection (this particular recognition would not become fully standard until the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's work in the early 20th century and the creation of the modern synthesis).

His work was extremely controversial at the time he published it and many during his time did not take it seriously. Darwin's theory of evolution was a significant blow to notions of divine creation and intelligent design prevalent in 19th-century science, specifically overturning the Creation biology doctrine of "Created kinds". The idea that there was no line to draw between man and beast would forever make Darwin a symbol of iconoclasm who removed humanity's privileged role in the centre of the universe. To some of his detractors, Darwin would be "the monkey man", often depicted as part ape.

Commemoration

During Darwin's lifetime many species and geographical features were given his name, including the Darwin Sound named by Robert FitzRoy after Darwin's prompt action saved them from being marooned, and the nearby Mount Darwin in the Andes celebrating Darwin's 25th birthday. In Australia's Northern Territory, the capital city (originally Palmerston) was renamed Darwin to commemorate the Beagle's 1839 visit there, and the territory now also boasts Charles Darwin University and Charles Darwin National Park.

The 14 species of Finches he researched in the Galápagos Islands are affectionately named "Darwin's Finches" in honour of his legacy. In 1964, Darwin College, Cambridge was founded, named in honour of the Darwin family, partially because they owned some of the land it was on. In 1992, Darwin was ranked #16 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history. Darwin was given particular recognition in 2000 when his image appeared on the Bank of England ten pound note, replacing Charles Dickens. His impressive and supposedly hard-to-forge beard was reportedly a contributing factor in this choice. Darwin came fourth in the 100 Greatest Britons poll sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.

As a humorous celebration of the theory of evolution, the annual Darwin Award is bestowed on individuals who "aid the process of evolution by demonstrating their unfitness" through fatally stupid actions.

Eugenics

Following Darwin's publication of the Origin his cousin Francis Galton applied the concepts to human society, producing ideas to promote "hereditary improvement" starting in 1865 and elaborated at length in 1869. In The Descent of Man Darwin agreed that Galton had demonstrated that "talent" and "genius" in humans were probably inherited, but thought that the social changes Galton proposed were too "utopian". Neither Galton nor Darwin supported government intervention and instead believed that, at most, heredity should be taken into consideration by people seeking potential mates. In 1883, after Darwin's death, Galton began calling his social philosophy Eugenics. In the twentieth century, eugenics movements gained popularity in a number of countries and became associated with reproduction control programmes such as compulsory sterilisation laws, then were stigmatised after their usage in the rhetoric of Nazi Germany in its goals of genetic "purity".

Social Darwinism

In 1944 the American historian Richard Hofstadter applied the term "Social Darwinism" to describe 19th- and 20th-century thinking developed from the ideas of Thomas Malthus and Herbert Spencer, which applied ideas of evolution and "survival of the fittest" to societies or nations competing for survival in a hostile world. These ideas became discredited by association with racism and imperialism. Though the term is anachronistic, in Darwin's day the difference between what was later called "Social Darwinism" and simple "Darwinism" was less clear. However, Darwin did not believe that his scientific theory mandated any particular theory of governance or social order.

The use of the phrase "Social Darwinism" to describe Malthus's ideas is particularly disingenuous, since Malthus died in 1834 before the inception of Darwin's theory was spurred by his reading the 6th edition of Malthus' famous Essay on a Principle of Population in 1838. Spencer's evolutionary "progressivism" and his social and political ideas were largely Malthusian, and his books on economics of 1851 and on evolution of 1855 predated Darwin's publication of the Origin in 1859.

Works

Published works

  • 1836: A LETTER, Containing Remarks on the Moral State of TAHITI, NEW ZEALAND, &c. – BY CAPT. R. FITZROY AND C. DARWIN, ESQ. OF H.M.S. 'Beagle.' [1]
  • 1839: Journal and Remarks (The Voyage of the Beagle)
  • Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle: published between 1839 and 1843 in five volumes by various authors, Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin: information on two of the volumes –
1840: Part I. Fossil Mammalia, by Richard Owen (Darwin's introduction)
1839: Part II. Mammalia, by George R. Waterhouse (Darwin on habits and ranges)
  • 1842: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs [2]
  • 1844: Geological Observations of Volcanic Islands [3], (French version)
  • 1846: Geological Observations on South America [4]
  • 1849: Geology from A Manual of scientific enquiry; prepared for the use of Her Majesty's Navy: and adapted for travellers in general., John F.W. Herschel ed. [5]
  • 1851: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of all the Species. The Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes. [6]
  • 1851: A Monograph on the Fossil Lepadidae; or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain [7]
  • 1854: A Monograph of the Sub-class Cirripedia, with Figures of all the Species. The Balanidae (or Sessile Cirripedes); the Verrucidae, etc. [8]
  • 1854: A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidæ and Verrucidæ of Great Britain [9]
  • 1858: On the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection
  • 1859: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
  • 1862: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects [10]
  • 1868: Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication (PDF format), Vol. 1, Vol. 2
  • 1871: The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
  • 1872: The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals [11]
  • 1875: Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants [12]
  • 1875: Insectivorous Plants [13]
  • 1876: The Effects of Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Vegetable Kingdom [14]
  • 1877: The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the Same Species [15]
  • 1879: "Preface and 'a preliminary notice'" in Ernst Krause's Erasmus Darwin [16]
  • 1880: The Power of Movement in Plants [17]
  • 1881: Formation of vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms [18]
  • 1887: Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Edited by his Son Francis Darwin) [19]
  • 1958: Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Barlow, unexpurgated)

Letters

References

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  • Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle, (including Robert FitzRoy's Remarks with reference to the Deluge), (Penguin Books, London 1989) ISBN 0-14-043268-X
  • E. Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging and The Power of Place (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995-2002).
  • Adrian Desmond and James Moore, Darwin (London: Michael Joseph, the Penguin Group, 1991). ISBN 0-7181-3430-3
  • The Darwin Deathbed Conversion Question
  • Richard Keynes, Fossils, Finches and Fuegians: Charles Darwin's Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle, 1832-1836. ( London: HarperCollins, 2002).
  • Charles Darwin (1999) by John Patrick Michael Murphy
  • James Moore and Adrian Desmond, "Introduction", in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (London: Penguin Classics, 2004). (Detailed history of Darwin's views on race, sex, and class)
  • Diane B. Paul, "Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics," in Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 214-239.
  • The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin], Ch. VIII, p. 274. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1905 [20]: quotation in which he describes himself as "agnostic"

See also

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