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Darwinism - Theory of Evolution

The term "Darwinism" refers to the theory of evolution that originated with the work of Englishman Charles Robert Darwin, especially as expressed in his book “On the Origin of Species”, published in 1859.

Charles Darwin theory argues that the true cause of change is the natural selection of certain species over others: more organisms are born than can live and reproduce, others have features that help them in the ensuing ‘struggle for survival,' and these are winnowed or chosen to be the breeding stock for all subsequent generations.

Darwinism is a broad term that refers to all biological hypotheses that explain how organisms evolve by mutation and selection.

Despite the fact that there are many significant discrepancies between Darwin's view of evolution and later theories, the word "Darwinism" is often used to refer to all theories of evolution after Charles Darwin that include natural selection and spontaneous, or nondirected, change as two of the key explanatory elements.

The word Darwinism is often used in a broader context to describe the concept of using Darwin theory to understand cultural traits, cultural behaviour, and human growth.

In April 1860, English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word Darwinism. It was first used to describe evolutionary ideas in general, including those proposed by English philosopher Herbert Spencer.

Though the word is most often used to refer to biological evolution, creationists have appropriated it to refer to the origin of life or celestial evolution, all of which are not biological evolution. It is thus described as the belief in and acceptance of Darwin's and his predecessors work over other ideas such as divine design and extraterrestrial origins.

Many Darwinists at the time, including Huxley, had concerns about the importance of the theory of natural selection, and Darwin himself supported what became known as Lamarckism.

In the late 1800s, German evolutionary biologist August Weismann's strict Neo-Darwinism found few supporters.

Darwinism was resurrected in a revised form in the early twentieth century with the advent of the modern synthesis, which combined natural selection with population genetics and Mendelian genetics.

Although the word Darwinism has remained in common usage among the general public when referring to modern evolutionary theory, science writers such as Olivia Judson, Eugenie Scott, and Carl Safina have argued that it is an inappropriate term. They say that since Darwin was unfamiliar with the work of Moravian scientist and Augustinian friar Gregor Mendel, he had only a hazy and inaccurate understanding of heredity. He had no idea about later scientific advances and, like Mendel, had no idea about genetic drift.

Charles Darwin Theory of Evolution

Biological evolution is based on the premise that populations and species of organisms evolve over time. When we think about evolution now, we are most likely to associate it with one individual in particular: British naturalist Charles Darwin.

Darwin's theory of evolution and contentious book “On the Origin of Species” was published in the 1850s. He suggested that organisms evolve or, as he put it, "descent with modification," and that all living things can be traced back to a common ancestor in it.

Natural selection, in which heritable characteristics that help species survive and reproduce become more widespread in a population over time, was proposed by Darwin as a mechanism for evolution.

On the Origin of Species, Darwin's seminal work lays out his views on evolution and natural selection. These theories were primarily based on Darwin's personal observations during his journeys around the world.

From 1831 to 1836, he was a member of the HMS Beagle survey expedition, which made stops in South America, Australia, and the southern tip of Africa. Darwin had the opportunity to observe and catalogue the local plants and animals at each of the expedition's stops.

Darwin started to see intriguing trends in the distribution and characteristics of species as he travelled. Darwin discovered that neighbouring Galapagos islands had finch species that were related but not identical.

He also stated that each finch species was well-suited to its climate and function. Wide, tough beaks were found in species that ate large seeds, while small, sharp beaks were found in species that ate insects.

Finally, he noted that the finches and other animals present on the Galapagos Islands were similar to those found on Ecuador's mainland but distinct from those found elsewhere.

This pattern, according to Darwin's theory, would make sense if the Galapagos Islands had been inhabited by birds from the neighbouring mainland long ago. Finches on each island may have adapted to local conditions over several generations and over long periods of time. On each island, this phase may have resulted in the emergence of one or more distinct organisms.

Darwin suggested that organisms would evolve over time, that new species emerge from existing species, and that all species have a common ancestor. In this model, each species has its own collection of genetic variations from the common ancestor that have accumulated over long periods of time.

Branching occurrences, in which new species break off from a common ancestor, resulting in a multi-level tree that connects all living organisms.

Darwin coined the phrase "descent with modification" to describe the mechanism by which groups of organisms modify their heritable traits over generations. It's now known as evolution.

Theory of Natural Selection

Darwin did not simply state that species evolved. Darwin instead suggested natural selection as a method for evolution. This process was simple and logical, and it clarified how societies could evolve and descend with modification over time, becoming better suited to their environments.

Darwin's Natural Selection Theory was Founded on Several Core Observations:

Traits are mostly inherited. Many traits are inherited or passed on from parent to offspring in living species. Even though Darwin was unaware that traits were inherited by genes, he understood this to be the case.

Organisms have the ability to produce more offspring than their surroundings can sustain. As a result, each generation competes for limited resources.

Heritable characteristics in offspring differ. Each generation's offspring may vary slightly in terms of traits (colour, height, form, and so on), and several of these characteristics will be heritable.

Darwin Deduced the Following from His Basic Observations on the Theory of Natural Selection:

In a population, certain individuals may have inherited characteristics that help them survive and reproduce. Since the traits make them more successful at living and reproducing, individuals with the helpful traits may leave more offspring in the next generation than their peers.

Since beneficial traits are heritable and species with these traits produce more offspring, they will become more prominent in the next generation.

Individuals with traits that are beneficial in that environment have significantly higher reproductive success than their peers, so the population will become adapted to its environment over generations.

Criteria for the Theory of Natural Selection to Work:

Natural selection does not choose traits that are inherently superior. Instead, it prefers beneficial traits, such as those that help an organism live and replicate more successfully than its peers in a given environment. Characteristics that are beneficial in one setting can be undesirable in another.

Natural selection requires some starting material, and heritable variation is that material. There must already be variance in a trait for natural selection to work on it. Furthermore, the variations must be heritable, as determined by the genes of the species.

Random mutations, such as variations in DNA sequence, are the original source of new gene variants that create new heritable characteristics, such as fur colours. Random mutations that are passed onto offspring usually happen in an organism's germline, or sperm and egg cell lineage. To increase diversity, sexual reproduction mixes and matches gene variants.

Scientists believe that this form of mechanism has occurred several times in the history of life on Earth, based on different lines of evidence. Natural selection and other processes are responsible for the remarkable diversity of today's life forms, and natural selection may clarify how species and their environments work together.

Social Darwinism

Various ideas that originated in Western Europe and North America in the 1870s that applied biological principles of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics, and politics are known as social Darwinism.

According to Social Darwinism, the wealthy and powerful gain wealth and power, while the poor lose wealth and power.

Joseph Fisher's article The History of Landholding in Ireland, published in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society in 1877, was the first to use the term "social Darwinism."

The extension of Darwin's biological theories to the social and cultural realm is known as social Darwinism.

In fact, rather than arising from biological theories, sociocultural evolutionary theories evolved alongside them.

Social Darwinism is a catch-all concept that has been applied indiscriminately to a wide range of late-nineteenth-century social theories, many of which bear no resemblance to Darwin's original theories.

There is no simple collection of ideas that can be described as Social Darwinism because science cannot easily be isolated from cultural factors.

There's reason to doubt whether the label referred to a real social movement or was merely a construct invented by historians and projected into the past.

The term did not become common until the turn of the century, and it has a negative connotation. Social Darwinism has been associated with racism, Nazism, and the eugenics movement in the twentieth century, which may explain why more recent involvement with evolutionism has been limited to human geography.

Charles Darwin proposed the Darwinism theory of the evolutionary system as an explanation for organic transformation. It refers to Darwin's particular viewpoint that evolution is primarily influenced by natural selection. Neo-Darwinism has superseded the earlier definition, purging it of Darwin's residual connection to the Lamarckian principle of acquired characters, based on newer experience. Modern scientists can differentiate between non-inheritable bodily variation and variation of a truly inheritable nature more satisfactorily than Darwin because they have a better understanding of the processes of inheritance.

FAQs on Darwinism

1. What is Darwinism?

Ans: Following Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, Darwinism became a generic term for all biological hypotheses regarding the evolutionary diversification of species by mutation and selection. The word Darwinism is often used in a broader context to describe the concept of using Darwin's mechanisms to understand cultural traits, cultural behaviour, and human growth.

2. What is the Theory of Evolution?

Ans: The term "theory of evolution by natural selection," coined by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the nineteenth century, is simplified to "theory of evolution." "Evolution is a change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations," according to the theory of evolution. These traits are the expressions of genes that are passed on from one generation to the next during reproduction. As a result of mutation, genetic recombination, and other causes of genetic variation, different characteristics appear to occur within any given population.

3. What is Social Darwinism?

Ans: Individuals, classes, and peoples, according to social Darwinism, are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social Darwinism was promoted by Herbert Spencer and others to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and colonialism, as well as to discourage intervention and change.

Biology • Class 12

Theories of Biological Evolution - Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

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Molecular Basis of Inheritance

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Packaging of DNA Helix
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Origin and Evolution of Life

Origin and Evolution of Universe and Earth
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Mechanism of Organic Evolution
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Evidences for Biological Evolution
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Origin and Evolution of Man
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Organisms and the Environment Around
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Ecosystems and Energy Flow

Forests: Our Lifeline
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Common Disorders of the Urinary System

Human Reproduction

Darwinism or Theory of Natural Selection
Objections to Darwinism
Neo Darwinism

Darwinian Theory of Evolution:

Darwin travelled by H.M.S. Beagle ship, which left on 27 Dec. 1831 and returned on 02 Oct. 1836 through S. America, S. Africa, Australia & Galapagos Islands.
Darwin was influenced by two books - (i) "Principles of population" of Malthus (ii) "Principles of geology" of Charles Lyell
Alfred Wallace, a naturalist who worked in Malay Archipelago had also come to similar conclusions around the same time and he sent his conclusions to Darwin in form of a chart.
This theory was later on explained by Darwin in his book ‘On the origin of species by means of Natural Selection’ (1859).

Basic concepts of Darwinism:

Branching Descent and Natural Selection are the two key concepts of Darwinian Theory of evolution. Natural selection is based on certain observations which are factual.

(i) Over production:

All organisms have the capability to produce an enormous number of offspring or organisms (multiply in geometric ratio).
Hence, theoretically population size will grow exponentially if everybody reproduced maximally (this fact can be seen in a growing bacterial population) but the fact is that population sizes, in reality, are limited.

(ii) Struggle for existence:

Natural resources are limited and populations are stable in size (except for seasonal fluctuation) means that there had been competition for resources. Only some survived and grew at the cost of others that could not flourish. This is called the struggle for existence.
It is of three types - (a) Intra-specific struggle : It is competition among the individuals of the same species for the same needs like food, shelter, and breeding. (Most acute type of struggle) (b) Inter-specific struggle: It is the struggle among the individuals of different species for food and shelter. It is the most potent force for organic evolution. (c) Environmental struggle: This struggle is between the organisms and their environment. All organisms struggle with cold, heat, wind, rain, drought, flood, etc.

(iii) Variations and heredity:

Members of a population vary in characteristics (in fact no two individuals are alike) even though they look superficially similar i.e., the population has built-in variation in characteristics.
Those characteristics which enable some to survive better in natural conditions (climate, food, physical factors, etc.) are called adaptive or useful variations while others are called as non - adaptive or harmful variations.
The novelty and brilliant insight of Darwin was, he asserted that variations, which are heritable and which make resource utilization better for few (adapted to habitat better) will enable only those to reproduce and leave more progeny.

(iv) Natural selection/ Survival of the fittest:

Individuals with more adaptive variations are "better fit" than individuals with less adaptive variations. Hence, those who are better fit in an environment would be selected by nature and leave more progeny than others. Darwin called it natural selection and implied it as a mechanism of evolution.
Fitness is the end result of the ability to adapt and get selected by nature.
The fitness, according to Darwin, refers ultimately and only to reproductive fitness.
It is observed that all adult individuals of a population don't have equal chances of mating; some males with better phenotypes are preferred by females. This is called Sexual selection.

(v) Origin of New species:

As a result of heritable variations and natural selection, there would be a change in population characteristic and hence new forms appears to arise.
Theory of Pangenesis-According to this theory all organs of an individual produce Pangenes, which are minute particles carrying information about the organs. The pangenes travelling through the bloodstream will ultimately reach the gametes so that each gamete will have pangenes for each of the different organs. After zygote formation, the pangenes tend to form the same organs from which these pangenes were produced.

Criticism of Darwinism:

The main drawback of this theory is that Darwin didn't have the knowledge of genetics and he had no satisfactory explanation for the cause, origin and inheritance of variations.
This theory only explained the survival of fittest but was unable to explain the arrival of the fittest.
Darwin was unable to explain why in a population only a few individuals develop useful variations and others have harmful variations.
Criticism of Darwinism was based on sexual selection. Why do only females have the right of selection for mating?
Darwin couldn't explain the existence of vestigial organs. 6. Darwin was unable to differentiate the somatic and germinal variations.
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Shaalaa.com | Theories of Evolution - Darwin'S Theory

Shaalaa.com, related questions view all [4].

Explain the evolution of the long neck of giraffe according to Charles Darwin.

Name and define the three types of natural selection.

List any three drawbacks of Darwinism.

The largest unit in which gene flow is possible is :

(1) Organism

(2) Population

(3) Species

Related concepts

Theories of Biological Evolution - Adaptive Radiation
Theories of Biological Evolution - Mutation Theory
Theories of Biological Evolution - Lamarck’s Theory of Evolution
Theories of Biological Evolution - Modern Synthetic Theory of Evolution

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Write an essay on Darwinism.

Darwinism Theory of natural selection:-The theory of natural selection is based on the following factor:-i Rapid multiplication:- All animals and plants tends to multiply in geometrical progression. Every species produces more offsprings than can be supported in a particular environment and can survive.ii Limited environmental resources Space and food:- Increase of population in animals and plants requires more space and food. The space in the universe remains constant. The ultimate source of food for all plants and also animals consists of CO2 of the air and water and mineral salts of the soil. These material do not increase. The carrying capacity of environment that is the number of individuals it can support does not allow its population to grow beyond the limit and equilibrium is reached. Hence the population size remains nearly constant.iii Struggle for existance:- Every individual makes efforts for fulfilment of its basic needs. This competition for the primary necessities of life is called struggle for existence.iv Variation:- Variation is the law of nature. Every individual varies in some respects such as size shape structure and behaviour from other of its species.v Natural selection survival of the fittest:- In the struggle for existence the individuals which have more favourable variations well enjoy a competitive advantage over others which have less favourable of unfavourable variations and will survive and reproduce.vi Inheritance of usefuI variation:- The individuals after their selection by nature in the struggle for existence pass on their useful variations to the next generation. Thus the offspring of the fit individuals will also be fit.vii Formation of new species:- In each generation new favourable variations appear and supplement the favourable variations inherited from the parents.

Darwinism Short Note | Evolution Class 12 Notes

In this article we will discuss about Darwinism:- Concepts of Darwinism, Evidences in Favor of Natural Selection and Criticism of the Natural Selection Theory

Evolutionary idea contributed by Darwin is called Darwinism
In 1831 Darwin got an opportunity to travel on H.M.S. Beagle for a voyage of world exploration.
He explained the mechanism of evolution

CONCEPTS OF DARWINISM

Over Production
Struggle for survive
Natural selection

1. OVER PRODUCTION

Living organisms have capacity to produce more individuals to ensure continuity of the race
This led to overcrowding
Oyster may produce over 60-80 million eggs per year
Single female salmon produces 28 million eggs in a season

2. STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVE

Reproduction is high but there is no corresponding space, food and other factors essential for life
This lead to competition for getting requirement of life
This competition is called Struggle for survive Intraspecific struggle
Competition between members of same species
They need and requirements are same so competition is heavy Interspecific struggle
Competition between members of different species Environmental struggle
Competition between organisms and environmental factors

3. VARIATIONS

Differences in character between individuals
Variations may be harmful, neutral or useful
Variations that are passed on from generation to generation
variations arise due to changes in the genes or the chromosomes
Small continuous variations are important for evolution

4. NATURAL SELECTION

Organisms with favorable variation succeed in the struggle for existence
They are fittest for survival and other animals unfit to survival
Fitness and unfitness is decided by environment
Process of selection of organisms with favorable variation is called natural selection

5. SPECIATION

New species arise by the co-operation of all the principles
Overproduction leads to struggle for existence
Animals are provided with a bulk of variations
Environment select the animals with favorable variation
They are survive and during reproduction character transmitted to next generation
A new species originated by accumulation of favorable variations from a number of generation

Evidences in Favor of Natural Selection:

Rate of Reproduction: Rate of reproduction is many times higher than the rate of survival in all organisms.
Limitation of Resources: Food, space and other resources are limited.
Struggle for Existence: Competition or struggle for existence is seen in all organisms.
Abundance of Variations: Variations are so abundant in nature that no two individuals of a species are similar, not even the monozygotic twins (they possess some dissimilarities due to their environment).
Production of New Varieties of Plants and Animals by Artificial Selection: When man can produce various new varieties of plants and animals in a short period, nature with its vast resources and long time at its disposal can easily produce new species by selection.
Mimicry and Protective Colouration: They are found in certain animals and are products of natural selection.
Correlation between Nectaries of Flowers and Proboscis of Insects (Entomophily): The position of nectary in a flower and the length of proboscis in pollinating insects are wonderfully correlated.
Pedigrees of Some Animals: Pedigrees of horses, camels and elephants also support the Natural Selection Theory.

Criticism of the Natural Selection Theory:

Inheritance of Small Variations: According to natural selection theory only useful variations are transmitted to the next generation, but sometimes small variations which are not useful for the possessor, are also inherited. It is beyond understanding that if the appearance of small wings in birds could help them in flying.
Over-Specialization of Some Organs: Some organs like tusks of elephants, antlers of deer have developed so much that instead of providing usefulness to the possessor, they often give hindrance to them. This theory cannot explain these facts.
Vestigial Organs: Why vestigial organs are present in some animals when they have no function? According to the Natural Selection Theory, vestigial organs should not be present.
Arrival of the Fittest: The theory only explains the survival of the fittest but, is unable to explain the arrival of the fittest.
Degeneration of Organs: The theory does not account for the degeneration of certain organs in animals.
Discontinuous Variations: The theory fails to explain the cause of sudden changes in the body. The main drawback of Darwin Is theory was lack of the knowledge of heredity and that is why he could not explain that how the variations are caused. Darwin himself was conscious of the inadequacies of his theory, when he remarked that, “I am convinced that natural selection has been the most important but not the exclusive means of modifications.”

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5.14: Influences on Darwin

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f-d:346316a0ce74e8228be8bf6afff9353d0033bb36566f95f0c864434b IMAGE_TINY IMAGE_TINY.1

Artificial Selection in Pigeons. Pigeon hobbyists breed pigeons to have certain characteristics. Both of the pigeons in the bottom row were bred from the common rock pigeon.

Wallace’s Theory

Did you ever hear the saying that “great minds think alike?” It certainly applies to Charles Darwin and another English naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace . Wallace lived at about the same time as Darwin. He also traveled to distant places to study nature. Wallace wasn’t as famous as Darwin. However, he developed basically the same theory of evolution. While working in distant lands, Wallace sent Darwin a paper he had written. In the paper, Wallace explained his evolutionary theory. This served to confirm what Darwin already thought.

Darwin was influenced by other early thinkers, including Lamarck, Lyell, and Malthus.
Darwin was also influenced by his knowledge of artificial selection.
Wallace’s paper on evolution confirmed Darwin’s ideas.

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People Who Influenced Charles Darwin at http://evolution.about.com/od/Darwin/tp/People-Who-Influenced-Charles-Darwin.htm .
Comte de Buffon,
Erasmus Darwin,
Georges Cuvier,
James Hutton,
Thomas Malthus.
What is the inheritance of acquired characteristics? What scientist developed this mistaken idea?
Who was Charles Lyell? How did he influence Darwin?
What is artificial selection? How does it work?
How did Alfred Russel Wallace influence Darwin?

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Darwinism Theory of natural selection:-

The theory of natural selection is based on the following factor:-

(i) Rapid multiplication:- All animals and plants tends to multiply in geometrical progression. Every species produces more offsprings than can be supported in a particular environment and can survive.

(ii) Limited environmental resources (Space and food):- Increase of population in animals and plants requires more space and food. The space in the universe remains constant. The ultimate source of food for all plants and also animals consists of CO 2 , of the air and water and mineral salts of the soil. These material do not increase. The carrying capacity of environment, that is, the number of individuals it can support, does not allow its population to grow beyond the limit and equilibrium is reached. Hence, the population size remains nearly constant.

(iii) Struggle for existance:- Every individual makes efforts for fulfilment of its basic needs. This competition for the primary necessities of life is called struggle for existence.

(iv) Variation:- Variation is the law of nature. Every individual varies in some respects, such as size, shape, structure and behaviour, from other of its species.

(v) Natural selection (survival of the fittest):- In the struggle for existence, the individuals which have more favourable variations well enjoy a competitive advantage over others which have less favourable of unfavourable variations, and will survive and reproduce.

(vi) Inheritance of usefuI variation:- The individuals, after their selection by nature in the struggle for existence, pass on their useful variations to the next generation. Thus, the offspring of the fit individuals will also be fit.

(vii) Formation of new species:- In each generation, new favourable variations appear, and supplement the favourable variations inherited from the parents.

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On the Origin of Species

The modern concept of evolution was proposed by Charles Darwin and was made renowned worldwide through his book, “ On the Origin of Species ” in 1859. The highlight of his work was that organisms, over a period of time, change as a result of behavioural or physical traits which are passed down from generation to generation. These changes enable an organism to better adapt to its environment and eventually pass on the traits to future generations. Those organisms that cannot adapt to change die out – hence the term “ Survival of the fittest. ”

From Land to Sea

One of the best examples that substantiate the process of natural selection is the evolution of whales. The very first ancestor of whales was a terrestrial, dog-like animal. In fact, Darwin even proposed the idea that the evolution of whales began with organisms that had terrestrial origins. In his book, he even provided a hypothetical example of a black bear that could, over time, gradually evolve into an animal as big as a whale under the select circumstances and factors.

Darwin quoted:

“ I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale. “

However, Darwin’s idea was ridiculed at that time because it went against so many established ideologies and beliefs. The controversy that he stirred became so much that this section was removed from later editions of his book.

Today, scientists knew that Darwin was on the right track, but he had not provided the most relevant example. Had he taken examples of hippos or cows, he may have had more success (cows, hippos and whales actually belong to the same order – Artiodactyla, making these animals unlikely relatives).

Natural Selection

Natural selection is a key mechanism of evolution. It states that the organisms that are well-adapted to the environment have more chances of survival and are likely to pass on the traits that aided their survival.

One of the most important concepts in biology, natural selection describes how an organism adapts to its environment. Natural Selection can lead to the process of evolution, where a group of organisms with certain characteristics have a much higher chance of survival than other groups. These successful group of organisms pass on their inheritable characteristics to their offsprings.

A classic example of natural selection in action is the pepper moths. Prior to the industrial revolution, lichens were quite abundant and covered the barks of many trees. The pepper moths that rested on these trees had light coloured patterns on its body and wings. This gave them adequate camouflage and hence, was able to blend in with the trees and escape predation.

However, during the industrial revolution, the pollution killed off the lichens and darkened the trees with soot. This made the bark of the trees very dark. Consequently, when moths these rested on the trees, its light coloured body stood out prominent and became easy prey.

The moths that had darker wings and bodies were able to survive because they were camouflaged better. Eventually, the dark-coloured moths thrived as they were able to hide better against the dark barks of the trees. These dark coloured moths were also able to pass on the genes that helped them survive predation. Conversely, the light coloured moths became rarer until they were no longer found.

LUCA – Ancestor of all Life

LUCA or the Last Universal Common Ancestor is an organism or a group of organisms from which all life that currently lives on earth has a common descent. LUCA is not the first organism to ever live, but one among the many. The true form of LUCA cannot be deduced from fossils, however, through phylogenetic bracketing , it has been inferred that LUCA is a unicellular organism – superficially similar to today’s bacteria.

LUCA was most likely an extremophile, living near the hellish volcanic vents of the ancient oceans. It was also autotrophic and anaerobic, meaning that it didn’t need oxygen to survive and could make its own food. From an evolutionary perspective, LUCA is a milestone for the inception of life on earth. Though life has diversified beyond comprehension, we can still trace evidence of LUCA’s existence in the genes of modern animals.

Evolution of Life on Earth

Throughout the earth’s 4.5 billion year history, many organisms have evolved and eventually gone extinct. In fact, studies have shown that more than 99% of all life that ever lived is currently extinct. The actual origin of life still remains a mystery. Microbial fossils are one of the earliest known fossils and it dates back to 3.4 billion years. However, scientists still theorize that life could have risen even earlier.

The current consensus about the origin of life is that life began from self-replicating molecules, which eventually made up the complex biochemistry of today’s life. The earliest form of these self-replicating molecules would have been precursors to RNA.

A few attempts have been made to explain the very first origins of life. Some of the more popular ones include:

Miller Urey Experiment
Abiogenesis
Clay Hypothesis
Deep-Sea Vent Hypothesis
RNA World Hypothesis

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What is Charles Darwin famous for?

What is evolution, as charles darwin understood it, what was charles darwin’s educational background, what was charles darwin’s family life like, what were the social impacts of charles darwin’s work.

Charles Darwin

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Table Of Contents

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation upon which modern evolutionary theory is built. The theory was outlined in Darwin’s seminal work On the Origin of Species , published in 1859. Although Victorian England (and the rest of the world) was slow to embrace natural selection as the mechanism that drives evolution, the concept of evolution itself gained widespread traction by the end of Darwin’s life.

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had three main components: that variation occurred randomly among members of a species; that an individual’s traits could be inherited by its progeny; and that the struggle for existence would allow only those with favorable traits to survive. Although many of his ideas have been borne out by modern science, Darwin didn’t get everything right: traces of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ’s outdated theory of evolution remained in Darwin’s own. He was also unable to correctly establish how traits were inherited, which wasn’t clarified until the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel ’s work with peas.

Growing up, Charles Darwin was always attracted to the sciences. In 1825 his father sent him to the University of Edinburgh to study medicine. There he was exposed to many of the dissenting ideas of the time, including those of Robert Edmond Grant, a former student of the French evolutionist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . He transferred to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828, where his mentors mostly endorsed the idea of providential design. A botany professor suggested he join a voyage on the HMS Beagle —a trip that would provide him with much of his evidence for the theory of evolution by natural selection .

Charles Darwin was born in England to a well-to-do family in 1809. His father was a doctor, and his mother—who died when he was only eight years old—was the daughter of a successful 18th-century industrialist. Darwin was not the first of his family to gravitate toward naturalism: his father’s father, Erasmus Darwin , was a physician, inventor, and poet who had developed his own theories on the evolution of species. Darwin later married his first cousin on his mother’s side, Emma Wedgwood. Together they had 10 children, 3 of whom died at a young age.

Charles Darwin’s theories hugely impacted scientific thought. But his ideas also affected the realms of politics, economics, and literature. More insidious were the ways that Darwin’s ideas were used to support theories such as social Darwinism and eugenics , which used biological determinism to advocate for the elimination of people deemed socially unfit. Although Darwin himself was an abolitionist, the social Darwinist ideas inspired by his work contributed to some of the most racist and classist social programs of the last 150 years.

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How Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution

Charles Darwin (born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire , England—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent) was an English naturalist whose scientific theory of evolution by natural selection became the foundation of modern evolutionary studies. An affable country gentleman, Darwin at first shocked religious Victorian society by suggesting that animals and humans shared a common ancestry. However, his nonreligious biology appealed to the rising class of professional scientists, and by the time of his death evolutionary imagery had spread through all of science , literature, and politics. Darwin, himself an agnostic , was accorded the ultimate British accolade of burial in Westminster Abbey , London.

Darwin formulated his bold theory in private in 1837–39, after returning from a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle , but it was not until two decades later that he finally gave it full public expression in On the Origin of Species (1859), a book that has deeply influenced modern Western society and thought.

Darwin was the second son of society doctor Robert Waring Darwin and of Susannah Wedgwood, daughter of the Unitarian pottery industrialist Josiah Wedgwood . Darwin’s other grandfather, Erasmus Darwin , a freethinking physician and poet fashionable before the French Revolution , was author of Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life (1794–96). Darwin’s mother died when he was eight, and he was cared for by his three elder sisters. The boy stood in awe of his overbearing father, whose astute medical observations taught him much about human psychology. But he hated the rote learning of Classics at the traditional Anglican Shrewsbury School, where he studied between 1818 and 1825. Science was then considered dehumanizing in English public schools, and for dabbling in chemistry Darwin was condemned by his headmaster (and nicknamed “Gas” by his schoolmates).

His father, considering the 16-year-old a wastrel interested only in game shooting, sent him to study medicine at Edinburgh University in 1825. Later in life, Darwin gave the impression that he had learned little during his two years at Edinburgh . In fact, it was a formative experience. There was no better science education in a British university. He was taught to understand the chemistry of cooling rocks on the primitive Earth and how to classify plants by the modern “natural system.” At the Edinburgh Museum he was taught to stuff birds by John Edmonstone, a freed South American slave , and to identify the rock strata and colonial flora and fauna.

Buzz Aldrin. Apollo 11. Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin Aldrin, photographed July 20, 1969, during the first manned mission to the Moon's surface. Reflected in Aldrin's faceplate is the Lunar Module and astronaut Neil Armstrong, who took the picture.

More crucially, the university’s radical students exposed the teenager to the latest Continental sciences. Edinburgh attracted English Dissenters who were barred from graduating at the Anglican universities of Oxford and Cambridge , and at student societies Darwin heard freethinkers deny the Divine design of human facial anatomy and argue that animals shared all the human mental faculties. One talk, on the mind as the product of a material brain , was officially censored, for such materialism was considered subversive in the conservative decades after the French Revolution. Darwin was witnessing the social penalties of holding deviant views. As he collected sea slugs and sea pens on nearby shores, he was accompanied by Robert Edmond Grant, a radical evolutionist and disciple of the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck . An expert on sponges , Grant became Darwin’s mentor, teaching him about the growth and relationships of primitive marine invertebrates , which Grant believed held the key to unlocking the mysteries surrounding the origin of more-complex creatures. Darwin, encouraged to tackle the larger questions of life through a study of invertebrate zoology , made his own observations on the larval sea mat ( Flustra ) and announced his findings at the student societies.

The young Darwin learned much in Edinburgh’s rich intellectual environment , but not medicine: he loathed anatomy , and (pre- chloroform ) surgery sickened him. His freethinking father, shrewdly realizing that the church was a better calling for an aimless naturalist, switched him to Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1828. In a complete change of environment, Darwin was now educated as an Anglican gentleman. He took his horse , indulged his drinking, shooting, and beetle-collecting passions with other squires’ sons, and managed 10th place in the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1831. Here he was shown the conservative side of botany by a young professor, the Reverend John Stevens Henslow , while that doyen of Providential design in the animal world, the Reverend Adam Sedgwick , took Darwin to Wales in 1831 on a geologic field trip.

Fired by Alexander von Humboldt ’s account of the South American jungles in his Personal Narrative of Travels , Darwin jumped at Henslow’s suggestion of a voyage to Tierra del Fuego , at the southern tip of South America , aboard a rebuilt brig , HMS Beagle . Darwin would not sail as a lowly surgeon-naturalist but as a self-financed gentleman companion to the 26-year-old captain, Robert Fitzroy , an aristocrat who feared the loneliness of command. Fitzroy’s was to be an imperial-evangelical voyage: he planned to survey coastal Patagonia to facilitate British trade and return three “savages” previously brought to England from Tierra del Fuego and Christianized. Darwin equipped himself with weapons, books (Fitzroy gave him the first volume of Principles of Geology , by Charles Lyell ), and advice on preserving carcasses from London Zoo ’s experts. The Beagle sailed from England on December 27, 1831.

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Darwinism designates a distinctive form of evolutionary explanation for the history and diversity of life on earth. Its original formulation is provided in the first edition of On the Origin of Species in 1859. This entry first formulates ‘Darwin’s Darwinism’ in terms of six philosophically distinctive themes: (i) probability and chance, (ii) the nature, power and scope of selection, (iii) adaptation and teleology, (iv) the interpretation of the concept of ‘species’, (v) the tempo and mode of evolutionary change, and (vi) the role of altruism and group selection in the explanation of morality. Both Darwin and his critics recognized that his approach to evolution was distinctive on each of these topics, and it remains true that, though Darwinism has developed in many ways unforeseen by Darwin, its proponents and critics continue to differentiate it from other approaches in evolutionary biology by focusing on these themes. This point is illustrated in the second half of the entry by looking at current debates in the philosophy of evolutionary biology on these six themes.

1. Introduction

2.1 darwin’s life, 2.2 darwin’s darwinism, 2.3 philosophical problems with darwin’s darwinism, 3.1 the roles of chance in evolutionary theory, 3.2 the nature, power and scope of selection, 3.3 selection, adaptation and teleology, 3.4 species and the concept of ‘species’, 3.5 tempo and mode of evolutionary change, 3.6 evolutionary ethics, altruism, and group selection, 4. conclusion, further reading, other internet resources, related entries.

Scientific theories are historical entities. Often you can identify key individuals and documents that are the sources of new theories—Einstein’s 1905 papers, Copernicus’ 1539 De Revolutionibus , Darwin’s On the Origin of Species . Sometimes, but not always, the theory tends in popular parlance to be named after the author of these seminal documents, as is the case with Darwinism.

But like every historical entity, theories undergo change through time. Indeed a scientific theory might undergo such significant changes that the only point of continuing to name it after its source is to identify its lineage and ancestry. This is decidedly not the case with Darwinism. As Jean Gayon has put it:

The Darwin-Darwinism relation is in certain respects a causal relation, in the sense that Darwin influenced the debates that followed him. But there is also something more: a kind of isomorphism between Darwin’s Darwinism and historical Darwinism. It is as though Darwin’s own contribution has constrained the conceptual and empirical development of evolutionary biology ever after. (Gayon 2003, 241)

Darwinism identifies a core set of concepts, principles and methodological maxims that were first articulated and defended by Charles Darwin and which continue to be identified with a certain approach to evolutionary questions. [ 1 ] We will thus need to begin with Darwin’s Darwinism as articulated in On the Origin of Species in 1859. We will then examine these same themes as they have been discussed by evolutionary biologists and philosophers of biology from the beginnings of the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis to the present.

Charles Darwin was not, as we use the term today, a philosopher, though he was often so described during his lifetime. [ 2 ] Nevertheless, for an encyclopedia of philosophy what is needed is a discussion of the impact of philosophy on Darwin’s Darwinism, and the impact of Darwin’s Darwinism on topics that both he, and we, would consider philosophical. We focus here on the impact of philosophical discussions about the nature of science during Darwin’s lifetime on Darwin’s scientific research, thinking and writing; and on the impact of that research, thinking and writing on philosophy. Taking the time to do such philosophical archaeology stems from a conviction that if the concept of Darwinism has legitimate application today, it is due to a set of principles, both scientific and philosophical, that were articulated by Darwin and that are still widely shared by those who call themselves ‘Darwinians’ or ‘neo-Darwinians’.

2. Darwin and Darwinism

Charles Darwin was born February 12, 1809 and died April 18, 1882. It was a time of radical changes in British culture, and his family background put him in the midst of those changes. His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a prosperous and highly respected physician living in Western England, south of Birmingham. He was also a philosophical radical, advocating Enlightenment ideas about human equality and liberty, including the liberty to think freely about the existence of God and about natural origins for the earth’s creatures. He wrote a number of very popular works of natural history, some in verse, in which he defended views about progress that included evolutionary speculations about the upward progress of living things from primordial beginnings.

Erasmus Darwin was an early member of an informal group of free thinkers self-styled the Lunar Society, [ 3 ] that met regularly in Birmingham to discuss everything from the latest philosophical and scientific ideas to the latest advances in technology and industry. The Society included James Watt, Joseph Priestley and Charles Darwin’s other grandfather, Josiah Wedgwood. Wedgwood, like Erasmus Darwin, lived in Staffordshire and was in the process of developing a family pottery works into a major industrial concern by applying new scientific and technological ideas to the production of ‘china’. The religious inclinations of the group were ‘non-conforming’ and included a number of Unitarians, a sect Erasmus Darwin referred to as ‘a featherbed to catch a falling Christian’. Looked upon with suspicion by High Church conservatives, they actively promoted in Great Britain the revolutionary philosophical, scientific and political ideas sweeping across Europe and the Americas. Most had spent considerable time absorbing Enlightenment ideas in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that Robert Darwin, Charles’ father, should follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, nor that he should end up marrying Susannah Wedgwood, by all reports Josiah’s favorite offspring. Politically and philosophically engaged, Susannah worked to organize her children’s education in the town of Shrewsbury, where she and Robert took up residence. She sent her children to a day school operated by Unitarian minister Rev. George Case and this is where Charles began his education. Unfortunately, Susannah died in 1817 when Charles was only 8, and his father then transferred him to the Shrewsbury School, operated by Dr. Samuel Butler, grandfather of the novelist (and sometime satirist of Darwin’s work) of the same name. “Nothing could have been worse for the development of my mind than Dr. Butler’s school” Charles proclaimed in the autobiography he wrote for his family, and he escaped down the street to his home whenever he could.

His older siblings took good care of him, under the Doctor’s watchful eye. Early letters indicate that he and his brother Erasmus were enthusiastic amateur chemists, and after his brother went up to Cambridge their letters were often full of possible experiments, orders to purchase chemicals and equipment for their ‘laboratory’, and discussions of the latest discoveries. This was an obvious enough passion that his classmates nicknamed him ‘Gas’. During summers he helped his father on his rounds to his patients, and when only 16 his father sent him and his brother to Edinburgh for the best medical education Great Britain had to offer. Erasmus needed to move from Cambridge to a proper medical school to complete his medical education, and young Charles was taken out of Shrewsbury School early to accompany his brother to Edinburgh, apparently being prepared to follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps in medicine. The two brothers arrived in Edinburgh in October of 1825. Erasmus left after the first year, leaving his brother on his own during his second year at Edinburgh.

Privately, Darwin early on decided he could not practice medicine. But his already serious inclination toward science was considerably strengthened at Edinburgh both by some fine scientific lectures in chemistry, geology and anatomy and by the mentoring of Dr. Robert Grant. Grant certainly knew that young Charles was Erasmus Darwin’s grandson; Grant expounded evolutionary ideas derived from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and Charles’ grandfather. But his primary gift to Charles was introducing him to marine invertebrate anatomy and the use of the microscope as a scientific tool and as an aid to dissecting extremely small creatures dredged out of the Firth of Forth. Darwin joined an Edinburgh scientific society, the Plinean society, of which Grant was a prominent member, and presented two lectures that reported discoveries he had made while working with Grant. This interest in marine invertebrates was to be a life long obsession, climaxing in his massive four-volume contribution to the comparative anatomy and systematics of fossil and living Cirripedia or ‘barnacles’ (Barrett & Freeman 1988, vols. 11–13).

When he finally broke the news of his distaste for medicine to his father, he enrolled to take a degree in Divinity at Christ College, Cambridge University, from which he graduated in January of 1831. As with the Shrewsbury School and Edinburgh, his official course of study had very little impact on him, but while in Cambridge he befriended two young men attempting to institute serious reforms in the natural science curriculum at Cambridge, Rev. John Henslow, trained in botany and mineralogy, and Rev. Adam Sedgwick, a leading member of the rapidly expanding community of geologists. Henslow and his wife treated Darwin almost as a son, and through Henslow Darwin was introduced to the men whose ideas were currently being debated in geology and natural history, as well as to men whom we look back on as among the very first to take up the historical and philosophical foundations of science as a distinct discipline, Sir John Herschel and Rev. William Whewell. As he wrote in his autobiography:

During my last year at Cambridge, I read with care and profound interest Humboldt’s Personal Narrative . This work, and Sir J. Herschel’s Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy , [ 4 ] stirred up in me a burning zeal to add even the most humble contribution to the noble structure of Natural Science. No one or a dozen other books influenced me nearly so much as these two.

In the next section we will discuss the influence of the philosophical ideals of Herschel and Lyell on Darwin.

Furthering his scientific training, Adam Sedgwick on two occasions took Darwin on extended geological tours of England and Wales. In addition Darwin and a cousin, William Darwin Fox, a year ahead of him at Cambridge, developed what began as an amateur passion for bug collecting into serious entomology.

His Edinburgh and Cambridge mentors were to shape Darwin’s philosophical attitudes and scientific career decisively. It was Henslow who was the final link to Darwin in a chain connected to Captain Robert Fitzroy of H. M. S. Beagle. Fitzroy sought a gentleman companion who could also collect information on geology and natural history during a proposed circumnavigation of the globe. Henslow’s note to Darwin, asking if he would be interested in being recommended for this post, arrived at the Darwin home, ‘the Mount’, while Charles Darwin was on a geological survey of Northern Wales with Adam Sedgwick. After resistance from his father had been overcome, Darwin was offered the post and accepted it.

The combination of meticulous field observation, collection and experimentation, note taking, reading and thinking during what turned into the Beagle’s five year journey through a very wide cross-section of the earth’s environments was to set the course for the rest of his life. During the voyage he read and reread Charles Lyell’s newly published Principles of Geology , a three-volume work that articulated a philosophical vision of rigorously empirical historical science, oriented around five key ideas:

The geologist investigates both the animate and inanimate changes that have taken place during the earth’s history.
His principal tasks are to develop an accurate and comprehensive record of those changes, to encapsulate that knowledge in general laws, and to search for their causes.
This search must be limited to causes that can be studied empirically—those ‘now in operation’, as Lyell puts it in the sub-title of his Principles , on the assumption that they have always operated, into the deep past, at the same intensity at which they now operate.
The records or ‘monuments’ of the earth’s past indicate a constant process of the ‘introduction’ and ‘extinction’ of species, and it is the geologist’s task to search for the causes of these introductions and extinctions, according to the strictures note in 3., above.
The only serious attempt to do so according to the idea that species are capable of ‘indefinite modification’, that of Jean Baptiste Lamarck, is a failure on methodological grounds. All the evidence supports the view that species variability is limited, and that one species cannot be transformed into another.

This vision influenced Darwin profoundly, as he freely admitted. While he became convinced by his observations and reading that the fossil record and current distribution of species could only be due to the gradual transformation of one species into another, he was determined to articulate a theory that measured up to Lyell’s principles. The crucial event in convincing him that this was to be his life’s work was likely a visit to Cape Town, South Africa during the Beagle’s return trip to England. John F. W. Herschel was in Cape Town on a mission to do for the Southern Hemisphere what his father William had done for the Northern, namely to develop a comprehensive star map with the new powerful telescopes developed by his father and aunt. As noted earlier, Darwin had been deeply impressed by Herschel’s Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy when it first appeared a year before the Beagle set sail, and in his private journal he referred to his meetings with Herschel during a week long stop in Cape Town in June of 1836 as among the most profound events of the entire voyage. Just five months before meeting Darwin, Herschel had finished reading the 2 nd edition of Lyell’s Principles . He sent Lyell a long letter filled with detailed constructive commentary. The letter opens by praising Lyell for facing the issue of the ‘introduction of new species’—which Herschel calls ‘that mystery of mysteries’—scientifically, and for advocating that we search for ‘intermediate causes’ to explain these ‘introductions’—code for natural, as opposed to ‘miraculous’, causes. [ 5 ] This part of the letter was quoted in Charles Babbage’s Bridgewater Treatise , published in 1837 while Darwin was struggling to develop just such a theory. Upon reading the Herschel quotation in Babbage, Darwin wrote in his private ‘species’ notebooks:

Babbage 2d Edit, p. 226.—Herschel calls the appearance of new species. the mystery of mysteries. & has grand passage upon problem.! Hurrah.—“intermediate causes”. (Barrett et al., 1987, 413; original punctuation)

He clearly recognizes that Herschel is here providing a philosophical justification for the project upon which Darwin was secretly working. And, in the very first paragraph of On the Origin of Species , Darwin looks back to this ‘Hurrah’, attributing the idea that the origin of species is ‘that mystery of mysteries’ to ‘one of our greatest philosophers’, without mentioning Herschel by name. The first mention of the possibility of an evolutionary solution to this problem is in his Ornithological Notebooks , in a note written shortly after departing Cape Town. [ 6 ]

Darwin’s theoretical task was, by the time he opened his species notebooks, tolerably clear: the only process that could produce the systematic patterns in the fossil record and the otherwise strange biogeographic distribution of species he now understood so widely and deeply was a process of slow, gradual transformation of species. He needed to come up with a natural, causal theory that would account for such transformations, and every element of that theory had to identify ‘causes now in operation’, causes that could be investigated empirically. The problem, and the methodological constraints, had been advocated by his geological hero, and now close friend, Charles Lyell; and they had been defended philosophically by his philosophical hero, Sir John Herschel.

Darwin, of course, expected, and got, outraged reactions from religiously conservative colleagues, such as his old geology teacher Sedgwick, who in a review expressed his “deep aversion to the theory; because of its unflinching materialism;–because it has deserted the inductive track,–the only track that leads to physical truth;–because it utterly repudiates final causes, and therby [sic] indicates a demoralized understanding on the part of its advocates.” What he had not expected was Lyell’s refusal to openly endorse his theory and Herschel’s decisive (if polite) rejection of its key elements. After we set out the theory in its Darwinian form, we can consider these reactions from those who apparently shared Darwin’s philosophical norms about scientific theory, explanation and confirmation.

The theory can be set out as a series of causal elements that, working together, will produce the needed transformations.

Species are comprised of individuals that vary ever so slightly from each other with respect to their many traits.
Species have a tendency to increase in numbers over generations at a geometric rate.
This tendency is checked, to use the language of Thomas Malthus’ On the Principle of Population , by limited resources, disease, predation, and so on, creating a struggle for existence among the members of a species.
Some individuals will have variations that give them a slight advantage in this struggle, variations that allow more efficient or better access to resources, greater resistance to disease, greater success at avoiding predation, and so on.
These individuals will tend to survive better and leave more offspring.
Offspring tend to inherit the variations of their parents.
Therefore favorable variations will tend to be passed on more frequently than others and thus be preserved, a tendency Darwin labeled ‘Natural Selection’.
Over time, especially in a slowly changing environment, this process will cause the character of species to change.
Given a long enough period of time, the descendant populations of an ancestor species will differ enough both from it and each other to be classified as different species, a process capable of indefinite iteration. There are, in addition, forces that encourage divergence among descendant populations, and the elimination of intermediate varieties.

It will be noticed that there is no element of this theory that is incapable of empirical investigation—indeed by now the published confirmatory studies of this process would fill a small library. [ 7 ] One can understand why devout and orthodox Christians would have problems; but why Darwin’s philosophical and scientific mentors? It would seem to be the model of Herschelian/Lyellian orthodoxy.

The answer lies in six philosophically problematic elements of the theory.

2.3.1 Probability and Chance

First, notice the use of the language of ‘tendencies’ and ‘frequencies’ in the above principles. Privately, Darwin learned, Herschel had referred to his theory as ‘the Law of higgledy-piggledy’, presumably a reference to the large element played in its key principles by chance and probability. Darwin’s theory is, as we would say today, a ‘statistical’ theory. One cannot say that every individual with favorable variation v will survive or will leave more offspring than individuals without it; one cannot say that no environment will ever support all of the offspring produced in a given generation, and thus that there must always be a competitive struggle. These are things that tend to happen due to clearly articulated causes, and this allows us to make accurate predictions about trends , at the level of populations, but not to make absolute claims about what must happen in each and every case. Only well after Herschel’s time did philosophers of science become comfortable with the idea of a theory of this sort, and the proper philosophical understanding of such explanations is still debated.

2.3.2 The Nature, Power and Scope of Selection

The core of Darwin’s theory is the concept of natural selection. Perhaps because of his use of the term selection, this core element of his theory apparently baffled nearly everyone. Could it be, as Lyell, Herschel and Darwin’s great American defender Asa Gray would ask, an ‘intermediate cause’, i.e. a causal principle instituted and sustained by God? Or is it, in its very nature, the antithesis of such a principle, as his old geology teacher Sedgwick believed? Could it possibly create species, or is it, by its nature, a negative force, eliminating what has already been created by other means? In one of his copies of On the Origin of Species , Alfred Russell Wallace crosses out ‘natural selection’ and writes ‘survival of the fittest’ next to it. Wallace always felt that ‘selection’ inappropriately imported anthropomorphic notions of Nature choosing purposefully between variants into natural history. And, in a devastating review, Fleeming Jenkin happily accepted the principle of natural selection but challenged its power to modify an ancestral species into descendent species, and thus limited its scope to the production of varieties. A number of reviewers, even some sympathetic ones, questioned the possibility of extending the theory to account for the evolution of those characteristics that differentiate humans from their nearest relatives.

2.3.3 Selection, Adaptation and Teleology

Moreover, because Darwin was very fond of describing natural selection as a process that worked for the good of each species, Darwin’s followers seemed to have diametrically opposed views as to whether his theory eliminated final causes from natural science or breathed new life into them. In either case, there was also serious disagreement on whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. [ 8 ]

2.3.4 Species and the Concept of ‘Species’

There is a fundamental philosophical problem with the idea that a species can undergo a series of changes that will cause it to become one or more other species. To illustrate it, look carefully at the first question that Charles Lyell wishes to address in the second volume of the Principles of Geology :

…first, whether species have a real and permanent existence in nature; or whether they are capable, as some naturalists pretend, of being indefinitely modified in the course of a long series of generations. (Lyell 1831, II. 1)

Lyell pretty clearly assumes that to allow for evolution is to deny the reality of species. For a species to be ‘real’, it must have ‘permanent existence in nature’, or as he puts it elsewhere , “…fixed limits beyond which the descendants from common parents can never deviate from a certain type…”. (Lyell 1831, II. 23) To accept evolutionary change, on this view, you must become comfortable with a variety of nominalism about species. And Darwin seems to have become so. [ 9 ]

Hence I look at individual differences, though of small interest to the systematist, as of high importance for us, as being the first step towards such slight varieties as are barely thought worth recording in works on natural history. And I look at varieties which are in any degree more distinct and permanent, as steps leading to more strongly marked and more permanent varieties; and at these latter, as leading to sub-species, and to species. (Darwin 1859, 52)

Permanence, as applied to species, is for Darwin a relative concept, and there are no fixed limits to variability within a species. Given enough time the individual differences found in all populations can give rise to more permanent and stable varieties, these to sub-species, and these to populations that systematists will want to class as distinct species. Moreover, he concludes the Origin with very strong words on this topic, words bound to alarm his philosophical readers:

Systematists will be able to pursue their labours as at present; but they will not be incessantly haunted by the shadowy doubt whether this or that form be in essence a species. …In short, we will have to treat species in the same manner as those naturalists treat genera, who admit that genera are merely artificial combinations made for convenience. This may not be a cheering prospect; but we shall at least be freed from the vain search for the undiscovered and undiscoverable essence of the term species. (Darwin 1859, 485)

Lyell, Herschel, Whewell, Sedgwick and many of Darwin’s contemporaries certainly would not find this a cheering prospect, since they were unrepentant realists about species. [ 10 ] Members of a species possess a ‘type’ established in the original parents, and this type provides ‘fixed limits’ to variability. Lyell clearly feels this is an empirically verifiable fact—most of chapters 2–4 of Principles Vol. II is devoted to presenting the evidence that such ‘fixed limits’ exist; and after the Origin’s publication this evidence was canvassed again in Fleeming Jenkin’s review. If this is so, then species extinction is easy to account for—there are fixed limits to a species’ ability to track environmental change. But a naturalistic account of species origination is more difficult, since there will need to be, in sexually reproducing species, a natural production of a new pair of parents with a new type. On the other hand, to adopt the sort of nominalism that Darwin seems to be advocating in the above quotations has undesirable consequences as well. [ 11 ] How are we to formulate objective principles of classification? What sort of a science of animals and plants will be possible if there are no fixed laws relating their natures to their characteristics and behaviors? A good deal of chapter 2 of Darwin’s Origin is devoted to convincing the reader that current best practice among botanists and zoologists accepts a natural world organized as he is insisting rather than as his opponents claim:

It must be admitted that many forms, considered by highly competent judges as varieties, have so perfectly the character of species that they are ranked by other highly competent judges as good and true species. (Darwin 1859, 49)

From a Darwinian perspective, this is a predictable consequence of the fact that the organisms we today wish to classify as species are merely the most recent stage of a slow, gradual evolutionary process. Organisms within a genus have common ancestors, perhaps relatively recent common ancestors; some naturalists may see ten species with a few varieties in each; others may rank some of the varieties as species and divide the same genus into twenty species. Both classifications may be done with the utmost objectivity and care by skilled observers. As systematists like to say, some of us are ‘lumpers’, some of us are ‘splitters’. Reality is neither.

2.3.5 Tempo and Mode of Evolutionary Change

The question of nominalism versus realism regarding species points toward a final aspect of Darwin’s theory with which many of those otherwise sympathetic to him disagreed, his gradualism. For apart from the question of whether his views entailed ‘nominalism’ about natural kinds, they do seem to reflect a belief that the evolutionary process must be a slow and gradual one. It is perhaps here that we see the most lasting impact of Darwin’s careful study of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology while on H.M.S. Beagle. We stress slow and gradual, for it is clear that one could have a slow but non-gradual evolutionary process (perhaps the long periods of evolutionary stasis punctuated by geologically rapid periods of speciation postulated by Eldridge and Gould’s ‘punctuated equilibrium model’ is such); and one could have a rapid but gradual one (for example the process George Gaylord Simpson labeled ‘adaptive radiation’, where a population migrates to a location with a variety of unexploited niches, and rapidly evolves to exploit them). Darwin stresses over and over again that he conceives of natural selection ‘adding up infinitely small variations’, and that he imagines the process of speciation to take place over a very long period of time.

2.3.6 Evolutionary Ethics, Altruism, and Group Selection

Despite Darwin’s effort to eschew discussion of human beings in the Origin (famously writing only that “light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history”; Darwin 1859, 488), he clearly believed that an evolutionary account of the human “moral sense”—as Darwin described it, borrowing from James Mackintosh—could be offered. This account, as a sub-species of what we now would call (though Darwin did not use these terms) altruistic behavior in general (see the entry for biological altruism ), quickly brought Darwin into contact with a host of difficult problems.

In the Descent of Man , he flirted with an explanation of the moral sense in terms of the characteristics not of moral individuals, who would seem to fare less well in the struggle for existence than their egoistic compatriots, but in terms of the characteristics of groups exhibiting moral virtues. In a case of struggle between two tribes of “primeval man,” he writes, the one with “a greater number of courageous, sympathetic, and faithful members, who were always ready to warn each other of danger, to aid and defend each other, this tribe would without doubt succeed best and conquer the other” (Darwin 1871, 1:162). Whether this involves a genuine appeal to what contemporary scholars would call “group selection” (see the entry on units and levels of selection ), or whether this can be described solely in terms of individuals desiring to help themselves and their relatives (i.e., in terms of kin selection) remains the subject of much discussion.

One of the strongest arguments for insisting that ‘Darwinism’ as it is used today is isomorphic to Darwin’s Darwinism, as Gayon puts it, is that each of these questions is still hotly debated, and has been throughout the theory’s history. With all of the amazing changes that have been wrought by the genetic, biochemical, and molecular revolutions, with the development of mathematical models of population genetics and ecology, of sophisticated techniques for both field and laboratory investigation of evolutionary processes, and of cladistic analysis in systematics, it nevertheless remains true that one can find evolutionary biologists who adhere to Darwin’s Darwinism, and are recognized as doing so by both themselves and their critics. In the next section of this article, we will develop a portrait of contemporary Darwinism around each of these contested features.

By the same token, however, Darwinism has evolved. As one example of this truth, think for a moment of contemporary debates about the nature of selection. The problems people had with natural selection in the 19 th century continue to be problematic, but there are a variety of problems that were either not discussed, or discussed very differently, in the 19 th century. Can, and does, natural selection work at levels other than the level of Darwin’s focus, individual organisms; is there a non-vacuous way to formulate the theory abstractly; how are we to understand the relationships between the concepts of fitness, selection and adaptation? How strong are the constraints on the selection process, and what sorts of constraints are there? Are there other motors of evolutionary change besides selection, and if so, how important are they?

3. The Six Core Philosophical Problems Today

Theories need both essences and histories. Stephen Jay Gould (2002, 1)

So reads the heading of the very first section of the first chapter of Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory . Opening with a subtle reading of an exchange of letters in 1863 between paleontologist Hugh Falconer and Charles Darwin, Gould eventually explains what he has in mind by this section heading:

In short, “The structure of evolutionary theory” combines enough stability for coherence with enough change to keep any keen mind in a perpetual mode of search and challenge. (Gould 2002, 6)

Gould, of course, was both an unabashed admirer of Charles Darwin and one of the most outspoken critics of the ‘neo-Darwinian synthesis’. We will be using both his account of ‘the Essence of Darwinism’ in Part I of this magnum opus and his arguments for a ‘Revised and Expanded Evolutionary Theory’ in its Part II as touchstones and targets.

In the preceding section of this essay, we organized our discussion of the problems that Darwin’s allies had with Darwin’s Darwinism around six issues: [i] the role of chance as a factor in evolutionary theory and the theory’s apparently probabilistic nature; [ii] the nature of selection; [iii] the question of whether selection/adaptation explanations are teleological; [iv] the ontological status of species and the epistemological status of species concepts; [v] the implications of Darwin’s insistence on the slow and gradual nature of evolutionary change; and [vi] the impact of natural selection on ethics and altruistic behavior. We claimed that one very good reason for continuing to characterize one dominant approach to evolutionary biology, that represented by the so-called ‘Neo-Darwinian Synthesis’, as ‘Darwinism’ is that its proponents side with Darwin on these issues, to the extent that Darwin had a clear position on them (and on many less fundamental ones besides). That in itself is remarkable, but it is the more so because the Darwinian position on each of these issues is under as much pressure from non-Darwinian evolutionary biologists today as it was in the wake of the Origin . It is not surprising, given the situation as we have just characterized it, that historians and philosophers of biology have made significant contributions to the discussion, especially in pointing out the underlying philosophical issues and conceptual confusions and ambiguities that stand in the way of resolving the issues at hand, and their historical origins.

It is our conviction that a full understanding of the underlying philosophical disagreements on these questions will only come from a patient historical study of how the ‘Synthesis’ positions on these various issues, and those of their critics, arose. That we cannot do here. Rather, in what follows we will simply be presupposing certain answers to these questions of historical origins. The list of references at the end of this essay includes a number of excellent pieces of work on this subject for those who share our convictions about its importance.

Let us begin with the language Darwin uses when he first sketches his theory at the beginning of the fourth chapter of the Origin :

Can it, then, be thought improbable , seeing that variations useful to man have undoubtedly occurred, that other variations useful in some way to each being in the great and complex battle of life, should sometimes occur in the course of thousands of generations? If such do occur, can we doubt (remembering that many more individuals are born than can possibly survive) that individuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and of procreating their kind? (Darwin 1859, 80–81, emphasis added)

Unlike Darwin’s contemporaries, and despite Darwin’s own apparent hesitation, the founders of the synthesis of Mendelian genetics and Darwinian selection theory, Sewall Wright, Ronald Fisher and J. B. S. Haldane, were entirely comfortable with a selection theory formulated in such terms. This was a substantial shift in the presentation of evolution, from a reluctantly probabilistic picture to a thoroughly mathematized, statistical, and probabilistic theory, which occurred in the first several decades after the publication of the Origin (Gayon 1998; Pence 2022).

On this issue, contemporary Darwinism has adopted an approach every bit as ‘chancy’ as that of Darwin. Note one clear statement of the Principle of Natural Selection from the philosophical literature:

If a is better adapted than b to their mutual environment E , then (probably) a will have greater reproductive success than b in E . (Brandon 1990, 11).

The theory trades pervasively in probabilities. Given the fact that evolutionary biologists, especially in so far as they take their cues from population genetics, deal with large populations conceived as ‘gene pools’, and think of evolution as long run changes in the frequencies of different combinations of genes from generation to generation, it is clear that, in the sense of making use of probabilistic or statistical reasoning, chance permeates contemporary Darwinism. The models of population biology provide a means of assigning probabilities to various outcomes, given information about population size, rates of mutation and migration (themselves given as averages and estimates). That is, as Darwin notes, being relatively better adapted increases an organism’s ‘chances’, i.e. increases its probability, of leaving viable offspring. It does not guarantee it. Since natural selection is a stochastic process, Darwinians from Darwin to the present rightly characterize it in terms of influencing the ‘chances’ of a given outcome, given variables such as selection pressure, population size or mutation rates.

Conceptual confusion arises, however, from the fact that ‘chance’ and ‘randomness’ are often contrasted, not with ‘deterministic’ or ’non-probabilistic’ outcomes, but with ‘selected’ outcomes. The evolutionary process, as Darwin understood it, involves both the generation of variation and a process producing a differential perpetuation of variation. One way to think about chance in Darwinism is in relation to a logical space of alternatives, by means of the following variation grid :



	Lamarck Asa Gray	Darwin Asa Gray
	Darwin Neutralism	Lamarck Neutralism

On this second sense of chance, what seems to make a theory ‘chancy’ is the fact that generation of variation and perpetuation of variation have both been, for some of these theorists, independent of future utility or fitness. As we see from the grid, a contrast on both scores is found in the evolutionary philosophy of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck’s is a materialistic argument against the variation in nature being a matter of chance. On the Lamarckian view, variations arise in an organism as a direct response to environmental stress or demand, giving rise to a stimulus, which in turn elicits a physiological response, which finally can be passed on via reproduction to offspring. Variations are not chance or random, since they are an appropriate response to an environmental stress. Here ‘chance’ signals a lack of relation or connection to adaptive needs .

The concept of ‘random variation’ is today often used as a synonym for ‘chance variation’ in precisely this latter sense. Here are two examples of this notion of chance or randomness as used by contemporary Darwinians.

…mutation is a random process with respect to the adaptive needs of the species. Therefore, mutation alone, uncontrolled by natural selection, would result in the breakdown and eventual extinction of life, not in adaptive or progressive evolution. (Dobzhansky 1970, 65)

Thus the production of variations may be a ‘chance’ process in that there are a number of possible outcomes with assignable probabilities, but it is also a ‘chance’ process in the sense that the probability assignments are not biased by ‘adaptive needs’ or ‘fitness’.

Referring now to perpetuation rather than generation of variation, when John Beatty describes ‘random drift’ as ‘changes in frequencies of variations due to chance’ in the following passage, he presumably has something like a contrast with changes in frequencies due to selection in mind.

In Darwin’s scheme of things, recall, chance events and natural selection were consecutive rather than alternative stages of the evolutionary process. There was no question as to which was more important at a particular stage. But now that we have the concept of random drift taking over where random variation leaves off, we are faced with just such a question. That is, given chance variations, are further changes in the frequencies of those variations more a matter of chance or more a matter of natural selection? (Beatty 1984, 196)

Notice that in the above quote we first get a substitution of ‘random’ for ‘chance’ in the phrases ‘random variation’ and ‘chance variation’, and then at least the suggestion that the concept of ‘random drift’ can be characterized as ‘changes in frequencies of variations due to chance’, where the contrast class consists of similar changes due to natural selection.

With respect to the generation of variation, chapter 5 of On the Origin of Species opens with the following apology:

I have hitherto sometimes spoken as if the variations—so common and multiform in organic beings under domestication, and in a lesser degree in those in a state of nature—had been due to chance. This, of course, is a wholly incorrect expression, but it serves to acknowledge plainly our ignorance of the cause of each particular variation. (Darwin 1859, 131)

Here Darwin is noting that, though to speak of ‘chance variations’ may seem to be citing chance as the cause of the variations, in fact it is simply acknowledging that they ‘appear to have no assignable cause’. But it is important to keep historical context in mind here. Whether Darwin himself ever flirted with the idea of ‘directed’ variation or not, he was acutely aware of two views from which his needed to be distinguished, very different from each other, but both holding to the view that variations arose for a purpose. [ 12 ] The most widely shared alternative was that found in natural theology. To quote the Reverend William Paley’s Natural Theology , regarding a beautiful instance of adaptation: “A conformation so happy was not the gift of chance”. Likewise, among Darwin’s followers, the American botanist Asa Gray, in an essay entitled ‘Natural Selection and Natural Theology’, uses the same contrast to advise Darwin against the notion of ‘chance variation’: “…we should advise Mr. Darwin to assume, in the philosophy of his hypothesis, that variation has been led along certain beneficial lines.”

Gray is here insisting that, since Darwin admits that using the term ‘chance’ merely signals ignorance of the true cause, and since the pervasive adaptations in nature suggest design, Darwin should avoid the suggestion that variations are due to chance in the sense of ‘absence of design’ . This introduces yet a third sense of ‘chance’ that has been instrumental in the interpretation of evolutionary theory (Shanahan 1991, 264).

Darwin, in fact never refers to ‘chance variations’ in the Origin , though occasionally he will note that if a beneficial variation ‘chances [i.e. happens] to appear’, it will be favored by selection (see pp. 37, 82) What Darwin has in mind, however, is clear from his concluding remarks in his chapter on Laws of Variation :

Whatever the cause may be of each slight difference in the offspring from their parents—and a cause of each must exist—it is the steady accumulation, through natural selection, of such differences, when beneficial to the individual, that gives rise to all the more important modifications of structure… (Darwin 1859, 170)

Whatever the cause of the generation of a variation may be, the role of selection is to accumulate those already present variations that happen to be beneficial, a process that, while probabilistic, is not at all independent of fitness (and hence not ‘chancy’ in our second sense). As Beatty put it, the generation of variations and their selection are ‘consecutive’ processes. But to call the generation of variation a ‘chance’ process is to use ‘chance’ in either the second or the third sense, meaning either that such generation is independent of the future utility of variations for the organism, or that it is not by design, not for some end.

There are, therefore, at least three forms of ‘chance’ at play in contemporary evolutionary theory: an invocation of probabilistic or statistical inferences, an invocation of processes that act independently of current or future fitness, and an invocation of the absence of design. To these we might add, as mentioned above, chance as ignorance of causes, and chance as historical contingency, though we lack the space to discuss either of those notions further here, bringing the total to five (see, e.g., Shanahan 1991, 263–267). Eble (1999, 76) drops the notion of probabilistic or statistical inference and adds the idea, less relevant in evolutionary contexts, that ‘chance’ can refer to uncaused events (see analysis in Millstein 2000, 609–613).

One further example can illustrate how all this interacts in the broader context of contemporary evolutionary theory (for more such examples, see the contributions to Ramsey and Pence 2016). Here, a champion of the neutral theory of molecular evolution characterizes his position:

…the great majority of evolutionary changes at the molecular (DNA) level do not result from Darwinian natural selection acting on advantageous mutants but, rather, from random fixation of selectively neutral or very nearly neutral mutants through random genetic drift, which is caused by random sampling of gametes in finite populations. (Kimura 1992, 225)

Here, it will be noticed, the focus is not on the generation of variations but on the perpetuation of variations. The contrast is between a random sampling of gametes that leads to the fixation of selectively neutral alleles and natural selection favoring advantageous variations. That is, the contrast between ‘chance’ and ‘fitness biased’ processes is now being used to distinguish different means of perpetuating certain variations . We are contrasting two sampling processes. Drift samples without concern for adaptation; selection samples discriminately on the basis of differences in fitness. Both samplings are ‘probabilistic’, of course, but that in no way obviates the above contrast.

However, as Beatty has pointed out, it was quite common until fairly recently to characterize natural selection in such a way as to make it almost indistinguishable from random drift (cf. Lennox 1992, Lennox and Wilson 1994). Numerous accounts of fitness characterized the fitness of a genotype as defined by its relative contribution to the gene pool of future generations—the genotype contributing the larger percentage being the fitter. But of course that could easily be the result of a ‘random’—non-fitness biased—sampling process; which organisms would be declared ‘fitter’ by this method might have nothing to do with natural selection. In order to provide a proper characterization of the role of chance in evolutionary change, then, it is critical to provide a more robust and sophisticated account of fitness. (For further information, see the entry on fitness .) This, in turn, requires that we discuss the conceptual network that includes the notions of adaptation and natural selection, to which we will turn shortly.

For now, let us assume that there is a way of characterizing fitness such that there is a substantial empirical question of what role indiscriminate sampling of genotypes (or phenotypes) plays in evolutionary change. This issue was first placed squarely before evolutionary biologists by Sewall Wright in the early 1930s. As Wright pointed out, genes that are neutral with respect to fitness can, due to the stochastic nature of any process of sampling from a population, increase their representation from one generation to the next. The likelihood of this happening goes up as effective population size goes down. Since Wright imagined that a quite typical scenario in evolutionary change was for species to be broken up into relatively small, relatively isolated, populations (or ‘demes’), with significantly more breeding within than between demes, the likelihood that such ‘neutral genotypes’ could become fixed at relatively high levels was significant. Though he gradually toned down this aspect of his work, a significant school of mathematical population geneticists in the 1960s and 70s took these ideas and ran with them, developing a ‘Neutralist’ approach to evolutionary change. This is the position characterized by Kimura (one of its most eloquent defenders) in the passage quoted above. Whether or not such a process plays a significant role in evolution is not a philosophical issue, but it is highly relevant to whether evolutionary biology should be seen as predominantly Darwinian. For if any view is central to Darwinism, it is that the evolutionary process is predominantly guided by the fitness-biasing force of natural selection, acting on variations that arise by chance. It is to natural selection and related concepts that we now turn.

The greatest number of females will, of course, fall to the share of the most vigorous males; and the strongest individuals of both sexes, by driving away the weakest, will enjoy the best food, and the most favourable situations, for themselves and for their offspring. A severe winter, or a scarcity of food, by destroying the weak and the unhealthy, has had all the good effects of the most skilful selection.

The words of Charles Darwin? No; these are the words of John Sebright, penned in The Art of Improving the Breeds of Domestic Animals in 1809, the year of Charles Darwin’s birth and fifty years before On the Origin of Species was published. Darwin refers to this passage in Notebook C of his Species Notebooks. [ 13 ] It will be noticed that Sebright is not discussing domestic selection, but is quite clearly saying that processes leading to differential survival and reproduction in nature will have ‘all the good effects of the most skilful selection’. Darwin, then, did not need to read Malthus to see what is here so plainly and clearly stated—namely, that the struggle for survival in nature will have the same ‘selective’ effects as the actions of the domestic breeder of plants and animals.

As this passage, and the argument of the Origin , shows, ‘natural selection’ began life as the product of analogical reasoning. Sebright sees clearly that the natural processes he is describing will have the same effects as the breeder’s selection, but he is not about to describe those processes as selection processes. Darwin took that step, and Darwinism has followed.

Darwin himself consistently refers to natural selection as a power of preserving advantageous, and eliminating harmful, variations. As noted in the last section, whether a particular variation is advantageous or harmful is, in once sense of that term, a matter of chance; and whether an advantageous variation is actually preserved by selection is, in another sense of the term, also a matter of chance. For Darwinism, selection is the force or power that biases survival and reproduction in favor of advantageous variations, or to look ahead to the next section, of adaptations. It is this that distinguishes selection from drift.

Recent years have seen significant challenges to the idea that this framework is sufficient to explain all evolutionary phenomena, or even to explain an important fraction of evolutionary phenomena of interest. On one side we find partisans of the so-called “extended evolutionary synthesis” (EES), who argue that features like niche construction, developmental bias, phenotypic plasticity, and non-genetic inheritance entail the existence of a theory that at least radically supplements, if not transcends entirely, the Darwinian perspective (for an introduction, see Laland et al. 2014; further references include Pigliucci and Müller 2010; Uller and Laland 2019). On the other side we could put scholars like George C. Williams, who has vigorously defended the explanatory sufficiency of Darwinian selection theory (Williams 1992), or a number of proposals arguing that sufficiently reformulated concepts from “traditional” evolutionary theory can allow it to take on the challenge of the EES without radical changes (e.g., the gene for Lu and Bourrat 2017, or adaptationism for Welch 2017; see also the entries on the gene , adaptationism , and population genetics ).

We can distinguish two broad categories into which we might sort these non-Darwinian amendments: [i] proposed limitations on natural selection as an evolutionary force; and [ii] expansions of the scope of natural selection to include new ‘targets’, ‘processes’ or ‘mechanisms’, and ‘levels’. It will be noted that in neither case is it obvious that the theory itself requires modification in the face of such challenges—in principle these might be nothing more than challenges to the theory’s range of application . However, if it turned out that most evolutionary change could be explained without recourse to natural selection, this would be grounds for arguing that evolutionary biology was no longer Darwinian. And if it turned out that the theory of natural selection could only be integrated with our new understanding of the processes of inheritance and development by a wholesale modification of its foundations, it might be best to see the new theory as a modified descendent of Darwinism, rather than Darwinism itself. Theories may need essences, as Gould claims; but if what is fundamental to the theory has changed, then so has its essence. To borrow a phrase from Paul Griffiths, perhaps it is not that theories need histories and essences—perhaps what they need are historical essences .

Alfred Russell Wallace regularly urged Darwin to jettison the term ‘selection’ as misleadingly anthropomorphic, and substitute Herbert Spencer’s ‘survival of the fittest’. Darwin went halfway—in later editions he added ‘or Survival of the Fittest’ to ‘Natural Selection’ in the title of chapter 4. As the theory developed in the mid-20 th century, the expression ‘survival of the fittest’ was gradually eliminated from any serious presentation of Darwinian selection theory. On the other hand, the concept of ‘fitness’ has played a prominent, and problematic, role. In the mathematical models used in population genetics, ‘fitness’ refers either to the abilities of the different genotypes in a population to leave descendants, or to the measures of those abilities, represented by the variable W . Here is a rather standard textbook presentation of the relevant concepts:

In the neo-Darwinian approach to natural selection that incorporates consideration of genetics, fitness is attributed to particular genotypes. The genotype that leaves the most descendants is ascribed the fitness value W =1, and all other genotypes have fitnesses, relative to this, that are less than 1. … Fitness measures the relative evolutionary advantage of one genotype over another, but it is often important also to measure the relative penalties incurred by different genotypes subject to natural selection. This relative penalty is the corollary of fitness and is referred to by the term selection coefficient . It is given the symbol s and is simply calculated by subtracting the fitness from 1, so that: s = 1 − W . (Skelton 1993, 164)

The problem lies in the fact that the concept of fitness plays dual roles that are instructively conflated in this quotation. For when fitnesses are viewed as measures of differential abilities of organisms with different genotypes to leave different numbers of offspring, the language of fitness encourages us to suppose that ‘fitness’ refers to the relative selective advantages of genotypes. On the other hand, if ‘fitness’ simply refers to the measure of reproductive success, it is a quantitative representation of small scale evolutionary change in a population, and leaves entirely open the question of the causes of the change. But then the assumed connections among the concepts of fitness, adaptation and natural selection are severed. ‘Selection coefficients’ may have nothing to do with selection; what W represents may have nothing to do with selective advantage.

There is, however, a way of formulating the theory in its modern guise which maintains an essentially Darwinian character. Since there are a number of confirmed ways in which natural populations can evolve in the absence of natural selection, and since balancing selection, i.e. countervailing selection forces, may prevent a population from evolving in its presence, it is clear that establishing, by measuring different reproductive rates among its members, that the genetic make-up of a population has changed does not establish that natural selection was the source of that change; nor does the fact that no change has been measured establish that natural selection is not operative. Population genetics and its associated models should be treated as the ‘kinematics’, not the ‘dynamics’ of evolutionary processes (on this distinction, see also Pence 2021). That is, it is a way of establishing that a population either is or is not in equilibrium, and it provides sophisticated tools for measuring rates of change in a population across generations. Moreover, like the kinematics of any physical theory, if it establishes cross-generational change, it also tells us that there are causes to be found—the detailed contours of those measures may even provide suggestions as to where to look for those causes. What it cannot do on its own is provide knowledge of the forces at work. To use language introduced by Elliott Sober, fitness, unlike natural selection, is causally inert . (For further information, see the entry on population genetics .)

That means that, as valuable as population genetics is, it should not be equated with the theory of natural selection. Too often in both biological presentations of the theory and philosophical discussions of it, this is forgotten. For example:

Most people are familiar with the basic theory of natural selection. Organisms vary in a heritable fashion. Some variants leave more offspring than others; their characteristics, therefore, are represented at a greater frequency in the next generation. (Wilson 1984, 273)

This is a presentation of ‘the basic theory of natural selection’ that makes no reference to natural selection at all!

Natural selection, if it is to resemble the Darwinian concept that bears that name, must be reserved for reference to an interaction between a variable, heritable feature of an organic system and the environment of that system . That interaction may or may not change the proportions of those features across generations, and those proportions may change for reasons other than those interactions. But a plausible natural selection hypothesis must posit some such interaction. (Whether this interaction is accurately described as causal is another much-debated topic in recent years; see Pence 2021 for a high-level summary.) On this issue we will give the last word to Stephen Jay Gould:

…when we consider natural selection as a causal process, we can only wonder why so many people confused a need for measuring the results of natural selection by counting the differential increase of some hereditary attribute (bookkeeping) with the mechanism that produces relative reproductive success (causality). (Gould 2003, 619)

The concept of natural selection has to this point been presented broadly because of the other two critical questions surrounding the contemporary Darwinian concept of natural selection that we mentioned earlier—questions having to do with possible limiting constraints on natural selection and about the sorts of objects that can be viewed as appropriate organismic/environmental ‘interactors’ in the selection process.

If we suppose that for Darwin natural selection was almost exclusively thought of as an interaction between individual organisms and their organic and inorganic environments, then we can see two challenges to Darwinism today with respect to levels of selection. There are those, such as G. C. Williams, Richard Dawkins (1976) and, more recently, J. Arvid Ågren (2021), who argue that selection is always and only of genes. Here is a clear statement:

These complications [those introduced by organism/environment interactions] are best handled by regarding individual [organismic] selection, not as a level of selection in addition to that of the gene, but as the primary mechanism of selection at the genic level. (Williams 1993, 16)

Dawkins’ preferred mode for making the same point is to refer to organisms—or interactors—as the vehicles of their genes, in fact vehicles constructed by the genome for its own perpetuation.

The original impulse for this approach, especially clear in Williams’ classic Adaptation and Natural Selection (1966), was philosophical—it was to use a sort of Ockham’s razor strategy against group selection hypotheses, showing that alleged group selection effects could be explained by explanations operating at the level of the genome (an approach more recently taken by the controversial Nowak et al. 2010). Throughout that book, selection is always said to be of individual alleles, regardless of the role environments at various levels may play in the process.

This view has been extensively challenged by philosophers of biology on both methodological and conceptual grounds, though there are, among philosophers, enthusiastic supporters (cf. Dennett 1995). In all the give and take, it is seldom noticed that defenders of this view claim to be carrying the Darwinian flag (Gayon 1998 and Gould 2003 are exceptions). Yet it is certainly not a position that Darwin would recognize—and not merely because he lacked a coherent theory of the units of inheritance. It is not a Darwinian view because for Darwin it was differences in the abilities of organisms at various stages of development to respond to the challenges of life that had causal primacy in the explanation of evolutionary change. Among evolutionary biologists from the ‘neo-Darwinian synthesis’ on, it is those who stress the role of organisms in populations interacting differentially to ever-variable ecological conditions in causing changes in the gene pools of those populations who are the card-carrying Darwinians. Such a “return of the organism” (Nicholson 2014) in evolutionary explanations marks a profound link between proponents of an extended evolutionary synthesis (e.g., Walsh 2015) and Darwin himself.

Darwinism also has challenges from the opposite direction. In the 1970s a number of biologists working in the fields of paleontology and systematics challenged the Neo-Darwinian dogma that you could account for ‘macro-evolution’ by means of long term extrapolation from micro-evolution. Gould, in particular, opens Part II of The Structure of Evolutionary Theory ( Towards a Revised and Expanded Evolutionary Theory ), with a chapter entitled ‘Species as Individuals in the Hierarchical Theory of Selection’. That chapter title combines two conceptually distinct theses that connect debates about the fundamentals of natural selection to patterns in macroevolution: first, the thesis defended by Michael Ghiselin (Ghiselin 1997) and championed and refined by David Hull (Hull 2001), that species are, in a robust sense of the term, ‘individuals’; and second, that there may well be selection among groups of organisms, qua groups (see section 3.6 ). These debates over the importance of selective and non-selective processes and the relationship between these mechanisms of biological change and broader patterns of diversification and adaptation comprise some of the most important and heated discussions currently underway in evolutionary theory.

Early in the Introduction to On the Origin of Species , Darwin observes that the conclusion that each species had descended from others “even if well founded, would be unsatisfactory, until it could be shown how the innumerable species inhabiting this world have been modified so as to acquire that perfection of structure and co-adaptation which most justly excites our admiration” (Darwin 1859, 3). One might say this was the central promise of Darwinism—to account for both phylogenic continuity and adaptive differentiation by means of the same principles; or as Darwin puts it, to integrate in one theory the supposed opposition between Unity of Type and Conditions of Existence.

But it is here that even the most sympathetic of Darwin’s theistic supporters were forced to qualify their support for the theory of descent with modification by means of natural selection. In Darwin’s day the reactions of Asa Gray and John Herschel are perhaps the most interesting in this respect. Both men saw in Darwin’s theory a way to account for ‘that mystery of mysteries,’ the regular appearance of new species by means of natural, or as they might say, ‘intermediate’ causes. However both instinctively recoiled from the irreducible and central role of ‘chance’ in the theory. They did not, but easily could have, said ‘God does not play dice with the universe.’ But as Darwin stated repeatedly, if gently, to Gray—if God ordained that variations should be along beneficial lines, natural selection would be redundant. Moreover, the evidence from the study of variation in domestic and natural populations put the lie to any claim that God directs all or most variation along beneficial lines. Darwinian selection theory is a two-step process—the production of variation unrelated to the adaptive requirements of the organism, and differential perpetuation of those variations that serve adaptive needs. Again, a theory of evolution that could not be so described would not be a Darwinian theory.

The nature of ‘selection explanations’ is a topic to which much philosophical attention has been devoted in recent years. Here we want to focus on only one important question—to what extent is the teleological appearance of such explanations simply that, an appearance masking a causal process in which goals play no role?

The appearance of teleology is certainly present in Darwinian explanations, and has been since Darwin spoke of natural selection working solely for the good of each being. The appearance of teleology stems from the ease with which both evolutionary biology and common sense take it for granted that animals and plants have the adaptations they do because of some benefit or advantage to the organism provided by those adaptations.

This is a hotly contested question, and we will here simply sketch a case that selective explanations of adaptations are robustly teleological. The interested reader may want to refer to the literature on this question referred to in the discussion and listed in the list of readings provided at the end of this entry. The serious philosophical issue can be put simply and directly: in selection explanations of adaptations, are the functions served by adaptations a central and irreducible feature of the explanans in such explanations? If the answer is yes, the explanations are teleological. [ 14 ]

A good place to begin is with a simple, yet realistic, example. In research carried out over many years and combining painstaking field work and laboratory experimentation, John Endler was able to demonstrate that the color patterns of males in the guppy populations he was studying in rivers feeding into the southern Caribbean were a consequence of a balance between mate selection and predator selection. To take one startling example, he was able to test and confirm a hypothesis that a group of males, with a color pattern that matched that of the pebbles on the bottoms of the streams and ponds they populated except for bright red spots, have that pattern because a common predator in those populations, a prawn, is color blind for red. Red spots did not put their possessors at a selective disadvantage, and were attractors for mates (Endler 1983, 173–190). We may refer to this pattern of coloration as a complex adaptation that serves the functions of predator avoidance and mate attraction. But what role do those functions play in explaining why it is that the males in this population have the coloration they do?

This color pattern is an adaptation, as that term is used in Darwinism, only if it is a product of natural selection (Williams 1966, 261; Brandon 1985; Burian 1983). In order for this to be true, there must be an array of color variation available in the genetic/developmental resources of the species wider than this particular pattern but including this pattern. Which factors are critical, then, in producing differential survival and reproduction of guppies with this particular pattern? The answer would seem to be the value-consequences this pattern has compared to others available in promoting viability and reproduction. In popular parlance (and the parlance favored by Darwin), this color pattern is good for the male guppies that have it, and for their male offspring, and that is why they have it (Binswanger 1990; Brandon 1985; Lennox 2002). This answer strengthens the ‘selected effects’ or ‘consequence etiology’ accounts of selection explanations by stressing that selection ranges over value differences. The reason for one among a number of color patterns having a higher fitness value has to do with the value of that pattern relative to the survival and reproductive success of its possessors.

Selection explanations are, then, a particular kind of teleological explanation, an explanation in which that for the sake of which a trait is possessed, its valuable consequence , accounts for the trait’s differential perpetuation and maintenance in the population.

In listing the topics we would discuss under the heading of neo-Darwinism, we distinguished the question of the ontological status of species from the epistemological status of the species concept . Though they are closely related questions, it is important to keep them distinct. As will become clear as we proceed, this distinction is rarely honored. Moreover, it is equally important to distinguish the species concept from the categories of features that belong in a definition of species (Rheins 2011). Advances in our theoretical understanding may lead us to reconsider the sorts of attributes that are most important for determining whether a group of organisms is a species, and thus whether it deserves to be assigned a name at that taxonomic level. It should not be assumed that such changes constitute a change in the species concept, though at least some such changes may lead us to restrict or expand the range of taxa that are designated as species. In his contribution to the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis, Systematics and the Origin of Species , Ernst Mayr titled chapter five ‘The Systematic Categories and the New Species Concept’. Recall that Darwin made a point of treating the species category as continuous with ‘well-marked variety’ and ‘sub-species’, and made the radical suggestion that its boundaries would be just as fluid. Without explicitly acknowledging Darwin, Mayr takes the same tack, discussing ‘individual variants’ and ‘sub-species’ as a preliminary to discussing the species concept. Mayr notes that for someone studying the evolutionary process, speciation is a critical juncture; “…his interpretation of the speciation process depends largely on what he considers to be the final stage of this process, the species.” (Mayr 1942/1982, 113) With this in mind, he offers the following definition, the so-called ‘biological species concept’ (BSC):

Species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups (Mayr 1942/1982, 120; 1976, 518)

Mayr was well aware of the limitations of this definition, and treated it somewhat as a ‘regulative ideal’. Dobzhansky in 1937 gave what he claimed to be a definition of species, but which seems, as Mayr noted (Mayr 1976, 481), much more a definition of speciation :

…that stage of evolutionary process, “at which the once actually or potentially interbreeding array of forms becomes segregated in two or more separate arrays which are physiologically incapable of interbreeding.” (312)

Simpson (1943) and others built even more historicity into the concept. These are all, of course, intended as definitions of the species category , and they attempt to provide a test (or a ‘yardstick’: Mayr 1976, 479) that in principle will permit a researcher to decide whether a group of individuals should all be identified by a single species-level concept such as ‘homo sapiens’. The test for species membership is the capacity to interbreed; the test distinguishing two species is incapacity to interbreed. Dobzhansky makes the importance of this test transparent—the transition from a single interbreeding population to two reproductively isolated ones is the process of speciation.

Now in each of these definitions, little attention is paid to the actual methods used by taxonomists and systematists in differentiating between varieties of a species and distinct species, something to which Darwin gave a great deal of attention. Darwin’s apparent nominalism regarding the species concept likely stemmed from his close attention to his own taxonomic practices and those of other specialists.

Mayr, on the contrary, relates different approaches to the species concept to the philosophical distinction between essentialism and nominalism (for the history of this argumentative move, see Witteveen 2015; 2016). He associates what he calls essentialism (and what we called above “realism” about species) with the view that a species concept refers to a universal or type. This view of the referent of the concept leads to the Typological Species Concept, which he traces from Linnaeus back to Plato and Aristotle, and which he claims ‘is now universally abandoned’ (1976, 516). It is worth noting that serious doubt has been cast both on the historical and the philosophical credentials of Mayr’s ‘Typological Species Concept’ (see, e.g. Lennox, 1987; repr. in Lennox 2001b; Winsor 2001, 2006; Walsh 2006; Wilkins 2009). At the opposite extreme is nominalism, which combines the view that only individuals exist in nature and that species are concepts invented for the purpose of grouping these individuals collectively.

Mayr claims that his Biological Species Concept (BSC) is an advance on both; individual species members are objectively related to one another not by a shared relation to a type but by causal and historical relationships to one another. He can thus be understood as arguing for a new, objective way of understanding the epistemological grounds for grouping individuals into species. This new way of grouping stresses historical, genetic and various ecological relationships among the individuals as the grounds for determining species membership. His claim is that this is more reliable and objective than similarities of phenotypic characteristics. This makes sense of the importance he eventually places on the fact the BSC defines species relationally:

…species are relationally defined. The word species corresponds very closely to other relational terms such as, for instance, the word brother . … To be a different species is not a matter of degree of difference but of relational distinctness. (Mayr 1976, 518)

Mayr has in mind that brothers may or may not look alike; the question of whether two people are brothers is determined by their historical and genetic ties to a common ancestry. Notice, however, that this is a claim about which characteristics, among the many that they have, should be taken most seriously in determining the applicability to them of the concept ‘brother’. That is, it is a defense of a sort of essentialism.

A number of critics have pointed out that essentialism need not be committed to ‘types’ understood as universalia in re ; and on certain accounts of essences any species taxon that meets the standards of BSC does so in virtue of certain essential (though relational and historical) properties. At one extreme, Michael Ghiselin and David Hull have argued that this causal/historical structure of species provides grounds, at least within evolutionary biology, for considering species to be individuals. [ 15 ] Organisms are not members of a class or set, but ‘parts’ of a phylogenetic unit. Taking a very different tack, Denis Walsh has recently argued that a form of ‘evolutionary essentialism,’ bearing a striking resemblance to the essentialism of Aristotle’s zoological work, is implicit in the work of a number of evolutionary developmental theorists (Walsh, 2006).

A critical issue in this debate over the account of the species concept most appropriate for Darwinism is the extent to which the process of biological classification—taxonomy—should be informed by advances in biological theory. Besides those already discussed, the moderate pluralism associated with Robert Brandon and Brent Mischler or the more radical pluralism defended by Philip Kitcher, argues that different explanatory aims within the biological sciences will require different criteria for determining whether a group constitutes a species (perhaps, controversially, including non-epistemic value commitments; see Garnett and Christidis 2017; Conix 2019). Cladists, on the other hand, employ strictly defined phylogenetic tests to determine species rank (see Rheins 2011).

Unlike many of the other topics that define the history of Darwinism, there is no clear-cut position on this question that can be identified as ‘Darwinian’ or ‘neo-Darwinian’. In a recent collection of papers defending most of the alternatives currently being advanced (Ereshefsky 1992), our suspicion is that virtually every author in that collection would identify himself as Darwinian. This may be because, as different as they are, a number of positions currently being defended have their roots in Darwin’s own theory and practice (see Beatty 1985; reprinted in Ereshefsky 1992).

Contemporary debates over the tempo and mode of evolutionary change often travel with those concerning the role of “non-Darwinian” processes in evolutionary biology, as discussed in section 3.2 . As was argued above, the classical Darwinist position on questions of tempo and mode is usually taken to be a strict gradualism, with natural selection slowly pushing populations toward adaptive peaks (see the entry on adaptationism ). From Darwin’s day to our own, a number of processes other than natural selection that significantly impact the speed and direction of population change have been increasingly emphasized. The oldest among them was genetic drift , which draws our attention toward selectively neutral (sometimes, as we saw above, described as “random”) change in populations. If one emphasizes processes of this sort, evolution might still be gradual, but it would not necessarily, or even not usually, be adaptively directed.

The same is true for the increasing interaction between evolution and developmental biology , or evo-devo. If processes like phenotypic plasticity, in which an organism with a static genotype may exhibit radically different phenotypes as a developmental response to environmental influences, are extremely prevalent, then the kind of gradual walk toward an adaptive peak which it is clear Darwin had in mind would be regularly punctuated by fits and starts of various kinds, as new portions of evolutionary space became available as a result of developmental novelty. In turn, this could lead to the non-gradual (potentially even non-Darwinian) pattern of punctuated equilibrium , Stephen Jay Gould’s term for this oscillation between periods of stasis and rapid change across the history of the tree of life (see the entry on macroevolution ). Examples of this sort could be multiplied (e.g., biased mutation, epigenetics), though we lack the space to do so here.

To be sure, it is not clear that Darwin himself would have considered any of these to be “anti-Darwinian” approaches. As counter-examples to Darwin’s gradualism accumulated in his own day, especially those driven by (misplaced, we now know) concerns about the age of the earth like those raised by William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, Darwin began to increase the importance of “sports” in later revisions of his works, large variations that could cause brief periods of rapid phenotypic change. That said, when a reference is made in contemporary work to the “Darwinian” position on tempo and mode, it is clearly his early, extreme gradualism that authors have in mind.

In-depth discussions of the contemporary state of the field on evolutionary ethics and biological altruism would take us too far afield for our purposes here, and each is the subject of a separate article in this encyclopedia (see morality and evolutionary biology ; biological altruism ). In short, ethical behavior seems to pose at least two prima facie challenges for evolutionary explanations. First, how could genuinely altruistic behavior, which seems to involve organisms making sacrifices for others, evolve under the strict optimizing regime of natural selection? And second, what is the relationship between evolutionary explanations of our mental and perceptual capacities and our understanding of moral knowledge? Must evolutionary theory undermine or “debunk” any claims to true moral beliefs (see the entry on moral epistemology )?

It is worth underlining here, however, that debate around Darwin’s own position on these issues has turned on whether or not Darwin was genuinely offering us a “group-selection” explanation for moral traits in human beings (e.g., Ruse and Richards 2016). This question, in addition to testing the limits of our ability to interpret precious little source material found in Darwin’s own writings, is difficult also because of the host of issues that might be implicated in the effort to explicate just what we mean by “a group-selection explanation” of a particular phenomenon.

As we mentioned in section 3.2 above, in linking the question of species’ metaphysical individuality to the hierarchy of natural selection, Stephen Jay Gould offers us a window onto the conceptual complexity to which this debate can lead. His title exemplifies one approach to group selection—the unit of selection is always the individual, but there are individuals other than individual organisms that are subject to selection. A very different result emerges if one assumes that groups of organisms such as demes, kin-groups, or species, though not individuals, are nevertheless subject to selection. Adding to the conceptual complexity, some researchers propose that the term ‘group selection’ be restricted to the process whereby group-level traits provide advantages to one group over another, in which case there are strict conditions delimiting cases of group selection. Others define group selection primarily in terms of group level effects . Thus a debate analogous to that earlier discussed regarding the definitions of ‘fitness’ emerges here—by group selection do we mean a distinct type of causal process that needs to be conceptually distinguished from selection at the level of individual organism or gene, or do we merely mean a tendency within certain populations for some well-defined groups to displace others over time? (For further discussion, see Sterelny and Griffiths 1999, 151–179; Hull 2001, 49–90; and see the entry on levels and units of selection .)

We hope that this survey has demonstrated, first and foremost, the rich past and present of philosophical reflections both about and inspired by Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Furthermore, as we have seen, Darwin’s own positions and works remain touchstones for such reflections, not only because he was the theory’s first proponent, but also because his positions still offer us a useful frame of reference as well as a host of sophisticated insights. To be sure, the philosophy and practice of biology have advanced significantly in the intervening nearly two hundred years since Darwin’s first notebooks on natural selection. But if history is any guide, considering whether and how these innovations depart from Darwin’s own views on the subject will be a fruitful enterprise well into the theory’s next century.

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Robson, G. C. and Richards, O. W., 1936, The Variation of Animals in Natur e, London: Longmans.
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Shanahan, T., 1991, “Chance as an Explanatory Factor in Evolutionary Biology”, History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 13: 249–269.
Skelton, P. (ed.), 1993, Evolution: A Biological and Palaeontological Approach , London: Pearson.
Sterelny, K. and Griffiths, P., 1999, Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology , Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Uller, T. and Laland, K. N., 2019, Evolutionary Causation: Biological and Philosophical Reflections , Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Uglow, J., 2002, The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World , New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux.
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Welch, J. J., 2017, “What’s Wrong with Evolutionary Biology?”, Biology & Philosophy , 32: 263–279.
Williams, G. C., 1966, Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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Wilkins, J. S., 2009, Species: A History of the Idea , Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wilson, D. S., 1984, “Individual Selection and the Concept of Structured Demes”, in Brandon and Burian, pp. 272–291.
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Charles Darwin’s Life

Browne, E. J. 1995, Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. 1: Voyaging , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
–––, 2000, Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. 2: The Power of Place , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Desmond, A. and Moore, J., 1992, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist , New York: Norton.
Herbert, S., 2005, Charles Darwin, Geologist , Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Charles Darwin: Primary Sources

Barrett, P. H. (ed.), 1977, The Collected Papers of Charles Darwin , 2 Vols., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Burkhardt, F. (ed.), 1985–2023, The Correspondence of Charles Darwin , Volumes 1–30, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chancellor, G. and John van Wyhe (eds.), 2009, Charles Darwin’s Notebooks from the Voyage of the Beagle , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keynes, R. (ed.), 2000, Charles Darwin’s Zoology Notes & Specimen Lists from H.M.S. Beagle , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Peckham, M. (ed.), 1959, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: A Variorum Text , Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. [1st Paperback edition, 2006]
Weinshank, D. et al. (eds.), 1990, A Concordance to Charles Darwin’s Notebooks, 1836–1844 , Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Charles Darwin’s Context

Owen, R., 1837/1992, The Hunterian Lectures in Comparative Anatomy, May and June 1837 (Edited and with an Introductory Essay and Commentary by Phillip Reid Sloan), Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Rudwick, M., 1997, George Cuvier, Fossil Bones and Geological Catastrophes , Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ruse, M., 1999, The Darwinian Revolution: Science Red in Tooth and Claw (Revised edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ruse, M. and Richards, R. J. (eds.), 2009, The Cambridge Companion to the Origin of Species, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Snyder, L., 2010, The Philosophical Breakfast Club , New York: Broadway Books.

The Evolution of Darwinism

Amundson, R., 2005, The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: Roots of Evo-Devo , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Depew, D. and Weber, B., 1995, Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection , Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Kohn, D. (ed.), 1995, The Darwinian Heritage , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mayr, E., 1976, Evolution and the Diversity of Life , Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Ruse, M. (ed.), 2013, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Philosophy and Evolutionary Theory

Brandon, R. N., 1996, Concepts and Methods in Evolutionary Biology , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Burian, R. M., 2005, The Epistemology of Development, Evolution, and Genetics , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Godfrey-Smith, P., 2009, Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
–––, 2014, The Philosophy of Biology , Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hull, D. and Ruse, M. (eds.), 1998, The Philosophy of Biology , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lloyd, E., 1994, The Structure and Confirmation of Evolutionary Theory , 2 nd edition Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Okasha, S., 2006, Evolution and the Levels of Selection , Oxford: Clarendon Press.
–––, 2019, Philosophy of Biology: A Very Short Introduction , Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sober, E., 1984, The Nature of Selection: Evolutionary Theory in Philosophical Focus , Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
––– (ed.), 1994, Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology , 2 nd edition, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
–––, 2008, Evidence and Evolution: The Logic Behind the Science , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
–––, 2024, The Philosophy of Evolutionary Theory: Concepts, Inferences & Probabilities , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Smith, David Livingstone (ed.), 2017, How Biology Shapes Philosophy: New Foundations for Naturalism , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

Though there are an abundance of web sites on Darwinism, the three most useful sites meeting the highest of academic standards are listed below. The first is the official site for the publication of material in the extensive Darwin Archives at Cambridge University, but has grown to become the default site for Darwin texts and related literature as well. The second is the official site for on-line publication of Darwin’s extensive correspondence. The third site is a very good starting point amd links to sites related to Charles Darwin’s historical context.

Complete World of Charles Darwin Online
Darwin Correspondence Project
Victorian Science: An Overview , The Victorian Web (funded by the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore)

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1 Darwinian Evolutionary Theory

Published: November 2018
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Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist, published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and the follow-up work The Descent of Man in 1871. In these works, he argued for his theory of evolution through natural selection, applying it to all organisms, living and dead, including our own species, Homo sapiens . Although controversial from the start, Darwin’s thinking was deeply embedded in the culture of his day, that of a middle-class Englishman. Evolution as such was an immediate success in scientific circles, but although the mechanism of selection had supporters in the scientific community (especially among those working with fast-breeding organisms), its real success was in the popular domain. Natural selection, and particularly the side mechanism of sexual selection, were known to all and popular themes in fiction and elsewhere.

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78 Social Darwinism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best social darwinism topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 good essay topics on social darwinism, 🔎 simple & easy social darwinism essay titles, ❓ questions about social darwinism.

Social Darwinism Through the History The social Darwinism progress before the 19th century was preceded by the concept of Darwinism. In this respect, the aspect of the evolution of animals and humans was greatly respected.
Social Darwinism and the Success or Failures of Individuals in the Society According to Darwin, while the fittest survive in nature, in human society such fitness is determined by the ability of people to adjust to the changing circumstances.
Social Darwinism: Evolutionary Explanations in Sociology In order to understand the reasons behind the failure of social Darwinism to describe society objectively, it is essential to review this ideology’s common arguments.
Social Darwinism and Legality of Panhandling It is impossible to judge the value of panhandlers’ life; however, panhandling should be outlawed to give people an opportunity to live a decent life.
Impact of Social Darwinism on the Perception of Human Disabilities In addition, connecting behavior such as the likeliness of criminality to genetics is incorrect and damaging not only to the individual but to a community and society as a whole.
Social Darwinism in “Battle Royal” by Ralph Ellison The Battle Royal is a non-fictional work of Ralph Ellison and talks of the black people fighting for their freedom in the Whites’ society. Furthermore, a good life is also embedded in hard work and […]
Scientific Racism: the Eugenics of Social Darwinism I think that the development of Scientific Racism and further Eugenics became the result of people’s attempts to justify their unethical behavior toward other individuals and to support their material goals to develop slavery, and […]
Social Darwinism and the Mixing of the Races All of his heinous acts at the time was meant to highlight the weakness of a particular race of people, in this case, the Jews, and how allowing them to continue to lay claim to […]
Social Darwinism and Nazi Genocide Ideology It is possible to trace the way the Jews settled and assimilated in western countries and the way the ideas of Social Darwinism affected the society to see the link between Nazi genocidal ideology and […]
Why Did the Ideas of Social Darwinism Appeal to Many Americans in the Late 19th Century? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to clear up what the main idea of Social Darwinism was and what the peculiarities of the Americans in the 19th century were.
Justifying Business Practices Through Social Darwinism
The Connection Between Malthus’ Economics, Social Darwinism, and Eugenics
The Role of Social Darwinism in the Construction of Nazi Ideology
Position Nationalistic Ambitions and Social Darwinism
Government Laws Preventing Social Darwinism
Emotivism and Social Darwinism and Its Ethical Applications
Social Darwinism and Reform in the Gilded Era and Modern Time
Spencer’s Theory Of Social Darwinism
Andrew Carnie’s Social Darwinism Principles
Social Darwinism in American Politics
Social Darwinism Impact Anti Semitism
Racism and Social Darwinism and Its Impact on the World
19th Century Developments and the Relevance of Social Darwinism
The Ideological Ties Between Darwinism, Social Darwinism, and Imperialism
The Role and Influence of Social Darwinism in America
George Pullman’s Influence on Social Darwinism
How Was Social Darwinism Used to Justify Imperialism
The Connection Between Social Darwinism and Race Superiority in the West
Comparing Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth During the Gilded Age
Social Darwinism and Its Effect on Society
Class Conduct: Social Darwinism and the Industrial Elite
Social Darwinism as the Reaction to Growing Empires
Description of The Social Darwinism and Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
What Is a Strict Social Darwinism Right
The History and Applications of Social Darwinism in Business Practices
Capitalism and Social Darwinism in the Novel “The Jungle”
What Is the Ideal of Social Darwinism
Darwin, Darwinism, and Social Darwinism: What Do We Learn From Darwin’s Theory
Causes and Influence of Social Darwinism
Impact of The Social Darwinism on the Development of the Humanity
Effects of Social Darwinism on Critical Race Theory
How Is Social Darwinism Different From Natural Selection
Frank Norris’ Expression of Social Darwinism
Racism and Social Darwinism in Regards to Imperialism
The Most Dangerous Game and Social Darwinism
Scientific Racisms: The Eugenics of Social Darwinism
How Does Social Darwinism Differ From Reform Darwinism
Social Darwinism Was the Cause of European Domination
Social Darwinism and Eugenics During The 19th Century
The Connection Between Eugenics, Social Darwinism, and Hitler’s Aryan Master Race
Why Is It Called Social Darwinism?
Who Is Known as Social Darwinist?
What Was the Impact of Social Darwinism?
What Is Social Darwinism Simple Explanation?
What Is Another Word for Social Darwinism?
What Is the Main Point of Social Darwin’s Theory?
What Is an Example of Social Darwinism?
What Are the Key Assumptions of Social Darwinism?
How Does Social Darwinism Explain Poverty?
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Darwinism?
When Has Social Darwinism Been Used?
Why Is Social Darwinism a Problem?
How Did Social Darwinism Play a Role in Imperialism?
What Is a Good Sentence for Social Darwinism?
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How Was Social Darwinism Criticized?
What Impact Did Social Darwinism Have on Society?
How Does Social Darwinism Apply to Society?
Why Is Social Darwinism No Longer Accepted?
What Did Social Darwinism Discourage?
Who Benefited From Social Darwinism?
How Did Social Darwinism Affect Capitalism?
Why Did Social Darwinism Appeal to the Wealthy Classes?
When Did Social Darwinism End?
How Did Social Darwinism Affect European Behavior?
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Essays on Social Darwinism

The importance of writing an essay on social darwinism.

Writing an essay on Social Darwinism is important because it helps to understand the historical and social implications of this controversial theory. Social Darwinism, which emerged in the 19th century, applied Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection to human society, suggesting that certain races or social classes were inherently superior to others. This ideology had a significant impact on politics, economics, and social policies, contributing to the justification of imperialism, colonialism, and discrimination.

By writing an essay on Social Darwinism, students can delve into the complexities of this theory and its repercussions on society. It provides an opportunity to critically analyze the ethical and moral implications of Social Darwinism, as well as its lasting effects on contemporary issues such as racism, inequality, and social injustice.

When writing an essay on Social Darwinism, it is important to conduct thorough research to understand the historical context and various interpretations of the theory. It is crucial to present a balanced argument, acknowledging both the proponents and critics of Social Darwinism, and to provide evidence to support your claims. Additionally, it is essential to articulate the connections between Social Darwinism and modern-day societal issues, demonstrating the relevance of the topic.

To effectively convey your ideas, it is important to use clear and concise language, and to organize your essay in a logical manner. Utilize proper citations and references to support your arguments and to give credit to the sources of your information. Finally, proofread and edit your essay to ensure coherence and accuracy in your writing.

Writing an essay on Social Darwinism is important for gaining insight into the historical and contemporary implications of this theory. It allows for critical analysis and reflection on the societal impacts of Social Darwinism, and provides an opportunity to engage in meaningful discourse on ethical and moral issues.

The origins and development of Social Darwinism as a concept
The influence of Social Darwinism on 19th and 20th century political and social ideologies
The impact of Social Darwinism on colonialism and imperialism
The role of Social Darwinism in shaping ideas about race and eugenics
The ethical implications of Social Darwinism in relation to human society
The relationship between Social Darwinism and the rise of capitalism
The use of Social Darwinism to justify inequality and exploitation
The ways in which Social Darwinism has been used to justify discrimination and oppression
The criticism and opposition to Social Darwinism within intellectual and academic circles
The legacy of Social Darwinism in contemporary social and political thought
The ways in which Social Darwinism has shaped modern ideas about competition and success
The impact of Social Darwinism on education and social welfare policies
The intersection of Social Darwinism with other social theories and philosophies
The ways in which Social Darwinism has been used to justify environmental exploitation and destruction
The relationship between Social Darwinism and the concept of "survival of the fittest"
The impact of Social Darwinism on the field of psychology and ideas about human behavior
The ways in which Social Darwinism has been used to justify militarism and war
The influence of Social Darwinism on popular culture and media representations
The implications of Social Darwinism for global inequality and development
The role of Social Darwinism in shaping ideas about individual responsibility and social welfare
The relationship between Social Darwinism and the rise of nationalism and xenophobia
The ways in which Social Darwinism has been used to justify discrimination against marginalized groups
The impact of Social Darwinism on ideas about health and healthcare policies
The relationship between Social Darwinism and ideas about gender and sexuality
The ways in which Social Darwinism has been used to justify colonialism and exploitation of natural resources

Social Darwinism is a complex and controversial concept that has had a profound impact on the development of modern societies. It has been used to justify a wide range of ideologies and policies, from colonialism and imperialism to eugenics and social welfare. Understanding the origins and implications of Social Darwinism is essential for grappling with the complex legacies of this concept in contemporary society.

One of the key aspects of Social Darwinism is its influence on political and social ideologies in the 19th and 20th centuries. The concept of "survival of the fittest" was often used to justify the unequal distribution of resources and power within societies, as well as the expansion of empires and the subjugation of indigenous peoples. This justification of inequality and exploitation has had lasting implications for global power dynamics and the distribution of wealth and resources.

Social Darwinism has also played a significant role in shaping ideas about race and eugenics. The concept of "natural selection" was often used to justify discriminatory policies and practices against marginalized racial and ethnic groups, as well as to promote ideas about the "improvement" of the human gene pool through selective breeding. These ideas have had lasting implications for ideas about race and genetics, as well as for the development of racist and eugenicist policies.

The ethical implications of Social Darwinism are also significant, as the concept has been used to justify a wide range of discriminatory and exploitative practices. The idea that competition and inequality are natural and inevitable has often been used to justify the exclusion of marginalized groups from access to resources and opportunities, as well as to promote ideologies of individualism and self-interest over collective welfare. These ideas have had lasting implications for social and economic inequality, as well as for the development of policies that prioritize the interests of the powerful over those of the marginalized.

Criticism and opposition to Social Darwinism have also been significant within intellectual and academic circles. Many scholars and activists have challenged the concept on both ethical and scientific grounds, arguing that it is based on flawed assumptions about human nature and the natural world. These critiques have played a significant role in shaping contemporary understandings of inequality and exploitation, as well as in promoting alternative visions of social and economic justice.

The legacy of Social Darwinism in contemporary society is also significant, as the concept continues to shape ideas about competition, success, and individual responsibility in the modern world. The influence of Social Darwinism can be seen in a wide range of social and political ideologies, from neoliberalism and libertarianism to nationalist and xenophobic movements. Understanding the ways in which Social Darwinism continues to shape contemporary society is essential for grappling with the complex legacies of this concept in the modern world.

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Darwinism
The term "Darwinism" refers to the theory of evolution that originated with the work of Englishman Charles Robert Darwin, especially as expressed in his book "On the Origin of Species", published in 1859. Charles Darwin theory argues that the true cause of change is the natural selection of certain species over others: more organisms are ...
Darwin's Contribution: The Theory of Evolution
Darwin had the following ideas regarding the theory of natural selection: Species keep on evolving or changing with time. As the environment changes, the requirements of an organism also change and they adapt to the new environment. This phenomenon of changing over a period of time as per the natural requirements is called adaptation.
Darwinism
neo-Darwinism. struggle for existence. Darwinism, theory of the evolutionary mechanism propounded by Charles Darwin as an explanation of organic change. It denotes Darwin's specific view that evolution is driven mainly by natural selection. Beginning in 1837, Darwin proceeded to work on the now well-understood concept that evolution is ...
Darwin, evolution, & natural selection (article)
Charles Darwin was a British naturalist who proposed the theory of biological evolution by natural selection. Darwin defined evolution as "descent with modification," the idea that species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor. The mechanism that Darwin proposed for evolution is natural selection.
Charles Darwin: Evolution Theory
Charles Darwin: Evolution Theory Essay. Exclusively available on IvyPanda®. Evolution theory explains about the history and origin of life. Scientists of the early age tried to explain the origin of life but they did not have any theories that could support their thoughts. The reigning paradigm at that time was the, "Natural theology".
Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection
This theory was later on explained by Darwin in his book 'On the origin of species by means of Natural Selection' (1859). Basic concepts of Darwinism: Branching Descent and Natural Selection are the two key concepts of Darwinian Theory of evolution. Natural selection is based on certain observations which are factual.
Darwinism And Social Darwinism: [Essay Example], 839 words
Conclusion. In conclusion, Darwinism and Social Darwinism offer two distinct perspectives on the process of evolution and its implications for the natural world and human society. Darwinism, with its emphasis on adaptation and natural selection, provides a framework for understanding the incredible diversity of life on Earth.
Write an essay on Darwinism.
Write an essay on Darwinism. More from this Exercise. 3 videos. ... Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12, IIT JEE prep, NEET preparation and CBSE, UP Board, Bihar Board, Rajasthan Board, MP Board, Telangana Board etc NCERT solutions for CBSE and other state boards is a key requirement for students. Doubtnut helps with homework, doubts and ...
12.2: Introduction to Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin, was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and, in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of ...
Darwinism Short Note
June 18, 2020 by Rajkumar. In this article we will discuss about Darwinism:- Concepts of Darwinism, Evidences in Favor of Natural Selection and Criticism of the Natural Selection Theory. Evolutionary idea contributed by Darwin is called Darwinism. In 1831 Darwin got an opportunity to travel on H.M.S. Beagle for a voyage of world exploration.
5.14: Influences on Darwin
This page titled 5.14: Influences on Darwin is shared under a CK-12 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by CK-12 Foundation via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.
Write an essay on Darwinism.
Write an essay on Darwinism. ← Prev Question Next Question →. 0 votes . 388 views. asked Dec 23, 2019 in Biology by Kajal01 (24.5k points) Write an essay on Darwinism. class-12; Share It On Facebook Twitter Email
Darwin: From the Origin of Species to the Descent of Man
This entry offers a broad historical review of the origin and development of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection through the initial Darwinian phase of the "Darwinian Revolution" up to the publication of the Descent of Man in 1871. The development of evolutionary ideas before Darwin's work has been treated in the separate entry evolutionary thought before Darwin.
Darwin's Theory of Evolution, its Causes and its Mechanism
On the Origin of Species. The modern concept of evolution was proposed by Charles Darwin and was made renowned worldwide through his book, " On the Origin of Species " in 1859. The highlight of his work was that organisms, over a period of time, change as a result of behavioural or physical traits which are passed down from generation to ...
Darwin, Charles
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) Charles Darwin is primarily known as the architect of the theory of evolution by natural selection. With the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, he advanced a view of the development of life on earth that profoundly shaped nearly all biological and much philosophical thought which followed. A number of prior authors had proposed that species were not ...
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is the foundation upon which modern evolutionary theory is built. The theory was outlined in Darwin's seminal work On the Origin of Species, published in 1859.Although Victorian England (and the rest of the world) was slow to embrace natural selection as the mechanism that drives evolution, the concept of evolution itself gained ...
Darwinism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Darwinism designates a distinctive form of evolutionary explanation for the history and diversity of life on earth. Its original formulation is provided in the first edition of On the Origin of Species in 1859. This entry first formulates 'Darwin's Darwinism' in terms of six philosophically distinctive themes: (i) probability and chance, (ii) the nature, power and scope of selection ...
On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation
The article was the first announcement of the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution by natural selection; and appeared in print on 20 August 1858. The presentation of the papers spurred Darwin to write a condensed "abstract" of his "big book", Natural Selection. This was published in November 1859 as On the Origin of Species.
PDF ESSAY Vol 451 Darwin's enduring legacy
the primary focus of evolutionary research ever since. One tree of life A sketch Darwin made soon after returning from his voyage on HMS Beagle (1831-36) showed his think- ing about the ...
PDF Disseminating Darwinism
3. Darwinism in New Zealand, 1859-1900 John Stenhouse 61 4. Environment, culture, and the reception of Darwin in Canada, 1859-1909 Suzanne Zeller 91 5. Darwinism in the American South Ronald L. Numbers and Lester D. Stephens 123 6. Darwinism, American Protestant thinkers, and the puzzle of motivation Ton H. Roberts 145 7.
Darwinian Evolutionary Theory
Abstract. Charles Robert Darwin, the English naturalist, published On the Origin of Species in 1859 and the follow-up work The Descent of Man in 1871. In these works, he argued for his theory of evolution through natural selection, applying it to all organisms, living and dead, including our own species, Homo sapiens.Although controversial from the start, Darwin's thinking was deeply ...
78 Social Darwinism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Darwinism, in general, is a biological theory describing the appearance of new species and extinction of the existing ones defining species through the process of natural selection1 that is the core of Darwin's theory and […] We will write. a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts.
Essays on Social Darwinism
By writing an essay on Social Darwinism, students can delve into the complexities of this theory and its repercussions on society. It provides an opportunity to critically analyze the ethical and moral implications of Social Darwinism, as well as its lasting effects on contemporary issues such as racism, inequality, and social injustice.

Darwinism - Theory of Evolution

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1. Introduction

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2.3.1 Probability and Chance

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