On the recommended works by this author:
in a funny way we remember them most because of what they wrote. If you think about it, if Darwin had not written a book like The Origin of Species, and The Descent of Man, which are masterpieces of English prose, and of reasoning, he would be part of the history of science, not part of the living consciousness of contemporary people. And similarly, we remember Lincoln for his words—for the speeches that he made. Had he been the same man, doing the same things, but an awkward or ineloquent speaker, he would not register in our heads in anything like the same way.
It is often said that Darwin cannot be held accountable for these excesses, but their seeds are obvious in his works, most notably The Descent of Man (1871), in which he finally explained what his evolutionary theory meant for humankind. The book echoes the concerns of Galton and others about overbreeding in "the reckless, degraded and often vicious members of society", such as the "squalid, unaspiring Irishman" who "multiplies like rabbits". There is a clear natural order of class, rank and race and only Darwin's insistence on a moral duty to help the weak partly redeems him.
The corollary to this is the idea that with appropriate education, indoctrination, social conditioning or what have you, people can be made to behave in almost any way imaginable. The evidence, however, is that they cannot. The room for shaping their behaviour is actually quite limited. Unless that is realised, and the underlying biology of the behaviour to be shaped is properly understood, attempts to manipulate it are likely to fail. Unfortunately, even as the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s masterwork, On The Origin of Species, approaches (it was published in 1859) that fact has not been properly accepted.
Evolution myths by Jim Endersby, review of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (Variorum Text), edited by Morse Peckham, and The Correspondence of Charles Darwin Volume 14: 1866, edited by Frederick Burkhardt and Duncan Porter, The Times (London), March 14, 2007
(via Arts & Letters Daily)
Darwin's voyage commemorated, by Maev Kenned, Guardian, December 2, 2002
The origin of The Origin of Species: Janet Browne carves out a unique place in the history of science for Charles Darwin in the second volume of her magisterial biography of the great naturalist, by Robin McKie, Observer, November 10, 2002
Data Guy, review by Andrew Berry of Almost like a Whale: 'The Origin of Species' Updated by Steve Jones, London Review of Books, February 3, 2000
Darwin's Descent of Man, review by Orestes A. Brownson, Brownson’s Quarterly Review, July, 1873
On this author:
Not only was Darwin correct on the central premises of his theory, but in several other still open issues his views also seem quite likely to prevail. His idea of how new species form was long eclipsed by Ernst Mayr’s view that a reproductive barrier like a mountain forces a species to split. But a number of biologists are now returning to Darwin’s idea that speciation occurs most often through competition in open spaces...
In the flashcard version of history, Darwin is the bewhiskered Victorian guy who said everybody evolved from monkeys and stole the credit for creation from God. Lincoln is the stoic symbol of American righteousness that wrote tablet-ready speeches and freed the slaves, only to be shot and killed by a crazed Shakespearean actor.
But what if Darwin’s evidence had led to conclusions that did not support his belief in the unitary origins of mankind? Would he have fudged the data? ... One is left with the impression that Darwin was amazingly lucky that his benevolent preconceptions turned out to fit the facts.
Evolution thus removed the need for divine explanations of diversity and, along with evidence emerging at that time of the extreme age of the Earth, it further suggested that the wider universe might also owe nothing to divine intervention and everything to natural laws. Darwin understood all of this and was greatly troubled.
He was a compulsively inquisitive child. He was also fearful. In part, he feared himself and his roving intellect. His inability to believe in the Christian god put him at odds with his beloved wife, Emma, and made him feel as if he lived set apart in some cold, far galaxy of the mind.
Both were born on Feb. 12, 1809. A writer, William Thayer, later proposed an international holiday to commemorate the heroes, respectively, of Justice and Truth.
Contrary to the first myth, natural selection is a description of a process, not a force. No one is “selecting” organisms for survival in the benign sense of pigeon breeders selecting for desirable traits in show breeds or for extinction in the malignant sense of Nazis selecting prisoners at death camps. Natural selection is nonprescient—it cannot look forward to anticipate what changes are going to be needed for survival. ...
Natural selection simply means that those individuals with variations better suited to their environment leave behind more offspring than individuals that are less well adapted. This outcome is known as “differential reproductive success.” It may be, as the second myth holds, that organisms that are bigger, stronger, faster and brutishly competitive will reproduce more successfully, but it is just as likely that organisms that are smaller, weaker, slower and socially cooperative will do so as well.
The Deistic Darwinians state their position thus: “We know of old that God was so wise that he could make all things; but behold he is so much wiser than even that, that he can make all things make themselves.” To which the atheists and the Biblical literalists reply: “Well, I just don’t see it.”
Social Darwinists grafted Darwin's basic ideas about biological evolution to human society and economy. To them, progress could only be made by eliminating imperfections from humanity, and this was best done by competition. That competition, neatly summarized by Herbert Spencer's term "survival of the fittest," was taken to mean the competition between individuals.
Richard Dawkins - Beware the Believers, by Random Slice, You Tube, March 28, 2008
Darwinism at AEI, by Tom Bethell, American Spectator July/August 2007
Darwin's Ghost: Can Evolution & Christianity Be Reconciled? by Peter James Causton, Commonweal, October 6, 2006
Darwinist Conservatism, review by Benjamin Wiker of The Right Darwin? Evolution, Religion, and the Future of Democracy, by Carson Holloway, Crisis, June 2006
Darwin and Darwinism: reviews, Human Nature Review
Darwin's Blind Spot: Biotech Merger, review by Mark Ridley of Evolution Beyond Natural Selection, by Frank Ryan, The New York Times Book Review, March 23, 2003, and
Letter to The New York Times by Frank P. Ryan Re: Mark Ridley's review of Darwin's Blind Spot
Religion Red in Tooth and Claw, review by Ronald L. Numbers and Karen Steudel Numbers of Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society, by David Sloan Wilson, American Scientist, March-April 2003
An early flowering of genetics by Richard Dawkins, Guardian, February 8, 2003
The Reality of Race by Sally Lehrman, Scientific American, February 2003
Darwin's web by A. S. Byatt, review of The Power of Place by Janet Browne, Guardian, January 4, 2003
Stick insect forces evolutionary rethink by Nicola Jones, New Scientist, January 15, 2003
The Origin of Religions, From a Distinctly Darwinian View: A conversation with David Sloan Wilson, by Natalie Angier, New York Times, December 24, 2002
New Thoughts on Evolution Arise from U.H. Yeast Study: Novel Method of Creating New Species Observed in Laboratory Yeast; University of Houston news release, December 2, 2002
Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree, by Hillary Mayell, National Geographic News, January 21, 2003
Creationist Museum Acquires 5,000-Year-Old T. Rex Skeleton, The Onion, January 15, 2003
Laying Bare Darwin’s Secrets, review by Keith Stewart Thomson of Charles Darwin: The Power of Place, by Janet Browne, American Scientist, January, 2003
How the Monkey Got His Tail, by William A. Dembski, Books & Culture, November/December 2002
Survival of the Slickest: How anti-evolutionists are mutating their message, by Chris Mooney, American Prospect, December 2, 2002
Sociobiology and You, by Steven Johnson, Nation, November 18, 2002
Putting Darwin in His Place by Richard Milner, Scientific American, September 16, 2002
The origin of Darwin's genius, by Anthony Daniels, Telegraph August 12, 2002
No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without Intelligence by William A. Dembski, reviewed by H. Allen Orr, Boston Review, Summer 2002
Darwin and the Descent of Morality, by Benjamin Wiker, First Things, November 2001
Conservatives, Darwin & Design: An Exchange; Larry Arnhart, Michael J. Behe, William A. Dembski, First Things, November 2000
Singer in the Rain, review by Nancy Pearcey of A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution, and Cooperation, by Peter Singer, First Things, October 2000
Science and Design, by William A. Dembski, First Things, October 1998
The Gorbachev of Darwinism by Phillip E. Johnson, First Things, January 1998
The Monkey Trial: The first 'trial of the century' revealed a great divide separating American Christians, by David Goetz, Christian History, Summer 1997
Theories of Evolution: Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, October 22, 1996, by John Paul II, First Things, March 1997
The Storyteller and the Scientist by Phillip E. Johnson, First Things, October 1996
Daniel Dennett’s dangerous idea, by Phillip E. Johnson, The New Criterion, October 1995
After Darwin, by John J. Reilly, First Things, June/July 1995
Domesticating Darwin, by Phillip E. Johnson, First Things, May 1993
Times Topics
Darwin Correspondence Project, Cambridge University
Conrad Martens Sketchbooks I and III, Cambridge University Library
The Talk.Origins Archive: Exploring the Creation/Evolution Controversy
On other works by this author:
All his life, Darwin had taken notes on the facial expression of emotions in both animals and humans; for cross-cultural data, he asked correspondents around the world to describe indigenous people showing happiness, anger, and other basic emotions, and to ask the subjects what feeling was being expressed. From this research, he concluded that the expression of emotions was identical in primates, and must have a biological basis apart from culture and society.
Darwin's doubts revealed in his letters to friends by Anthony Barnes, on the Darwin Correspondence Project, The Independent, April 8, 2007
(via Arts & Letters Daily)
How far down the dusky bosom? by Eric Korn, review of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin, edited by Paul Ekman, London Review of Books, November 26, 1998
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