DARWINISM
Darwinism originally included the broad concepts of transmutation of
species or of evolution which gained general scientific acceptance when Charles
Darwin published On the Origin of Species, including concepts which predated
Darwin's theories, but subsequently referred to specific concepts of natural
selection, the Weismann barrier or in genetics the central dogma of molecular
biology. Though it usually refers strictly to biological evolution, the term
has been misused by creationists to refer to the origin of life and has even
been applied to concepts of cosmic evolution which have no connection to
Darwin's work.
The meaning of "Darwinism" has changed over time, and varies
depending on its context. In the United States, the term "Darwinism"
is often used by creationists as a pejorative term in reference to beliefs such
as atheistic naturalism, but in the United Kingdom the term has no negative
connotations, being freely used as a shorthand for the body of theory dealing
with evolution, and in particular, evolution by natural selection.
SYNOPSIS
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, in Shrewsbury, England
and died at the Down House in Kent on April 19, 1882. He was born to Robert and
Susannah Darwin. Robert was a successful physician whose father, Erasmus
Darwin, had also been a physician but had made his name as a poet of the
natural world. Susannah Wedgwood came from a family of potters; her father,
Josiah Wedgwood, had made a small fortune making high-quality pottery. Both
sides of Darwin's family were liberal in their politics and indifferent in
their religion.
Darwin spent his childhood playing at The Mount, the Darwin home and
estate in Shrewsbury. He was schooled at home by his sister Caroline until he
was eight years old and Susannah died. He then spent a year at a day school and
transferred to a boarding school, the Shrewsbury School, only a mile away from
The Mount. There he studied, getting acceptable but unremarkable grades, until
age sixteen, when his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study
medicine. Darwin focused on collecting, hunting, and naturalizing instead of
medicine. It was there that he first learned to study and collect beetles. The
marine biologist Robert Grant took him under his wing. After two years, it was
obvious that Darwin would not become a doctor, so with the help of his father
Darwin transferred to the University of Cambridge to study for the clergy of
the Anglican Church. There he became friends with the older botanist John
Henslow.
Soon after graduating, in 1831, Darwin was offered a position on board
the HMS Beagle, a ship that was mapping the coast of South America on a two or
three year voyage around the world. He eagerly accepted the opportunity and
spent the next five years on board the Beagle, taking copious notes and sending
thousands of samples and specimens back to Henslow in England for safe-
keeping.
When Darwin returned to England he found that Henslow and other
geologists, zoologists, and botanists were fascinated by the specimens he had
collected. He spent the next ten years cataloging and describing the
discoveries he had made on his journey. He wrote books on coral reefs and
volcanic islands, various papers, and a journal of his voyage. While working on
these, he also started to think about a deeper, more important problem: the
origin of species. He opened his first notebook on the topic in 1837, more than
twenty years before he would finally be confident enough of his new theory of "evolution
by natural selection" to publish it.
In 1839, Darwin married Emma Wedgwood, his cousin, and they moved in to
a house in London where Darwin could focus on his work. Unfortunately, his
health started to fail mysteriously, so they moved to the country. They lived
in a small village where Darwin could find peace and quiet. After completing
his work on the results of the Beagle voyage, still not ready to publish his
thoughts on evolution, Darwin turned to what seemed at first like a small,
insignificant problem: the classification of different kinds of barnacles.
Darwin soon became entangled in the enormous project of dissecting and
describing all of the barnacles of the world for what eventually became a four-
volume work. Eight years later, in 1854, he finally finished, and was able to
turn back to the problem of evolution.
In 1857, Alfred Russell Wallace sent Darwin a paper regarding the
evolution of species. Wallace's theory was very similar to Darwin's. Wallace's
paper and a sketch of Darwin's theory were presented at the Linnean Society.
Darwin decided to produce an "abstract" of a longer book on evolution
that he was working on, so as not to let anyone else take credit for an idea he
had been developing for more than twenty years. The abstract was published in
1859 as On the Origin of Species, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the
Struggle for Life. It was an immediate sensation, selling out the first
printing within a day. Debates over the meaning of the theory for the nature of
humanity began, though Darwin himself remained above the fray in his
self-imposed isolation at Down House. His friends Joseph Hooker, the botanist,
and especially Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist, defended his theory to the
world while he continued to do research.
In the 1860s, Darwin worked on three books. One was about variation
under domestication, which he saw as being parallel to variation in the wild.
Another was about the evolution of humanity and the role of sexual selection.
The final one regarded the expression of emotions. The book on humanity and
sexual selection, The Descent of Man, was published in 1871. Darwin expected it
to cause a sensation with its claims that humans were descended from other
animals, but most of the thunder had been stolen twelve years ago by the
Origin. In 1872, The Expression of Emotions in Animals and Man was published.
In his last decade, Darwin turned away from evolution and focused on
the garden. His research on climbing plants and the geological role of
earthworms turned his workshop into a virtual greenhouse and resulted in
several books. The illness that had plagued Darwin throughout his life began to
abate somewhat, so that although he was still not strong, he was able to enjoy
his old age. By 1877, his theories were still controversial, but he was so well
respected that the University of Cambridge gave him an honorary doctorate. In
1882, he weakened. Darwin died on April 19, 1882, at the Down House. He was
buried in Westminster Abbey.
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