Robert J. Richards
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226058764
- eISBN:
- 9780226059099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226059099.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Darwin believed his principle of divergence as important as his principle of natural selection. Darwin asserted, however, that he came to recognize the principle only in the 1850s, long after he had ...
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Darwin believed his principle of divergence as important as his principle of natural selection. Darwin asserted, however, that he came to recognize the principle only in the 1850s, long after he had formulated his basic argument. What exactly did he discover in the 1850s that he had neglected earlier? This chapter argues that Darwin was misled by pigeons and the pigeon-fancier’s art. The chapter also considers the new conception of the environment that arose in the 1850s from Darwin’s mathematical analyses of species. This new conception of the environment led him to argue for the power of sympatric speciation, as opposed to allopatric speciation. The hinge of his several arguments depends on attributing intentional powers to nature. Jerry Fodor complains that neo-Darwinians make a similar attribution; he’s wrong about that. But if he had examined the Origin of Species, he would have had a case.Less
Darwin believed his principle of divergence as important as his principle of natural selection. Darwin asserted, however, that he came to recognize the principle only in the 1850s, long after he had formulated his basic argument. What exactly did he discover in the 1850s that he had neglected earlier? This chapter argues that Darwin was misled by pigeons and the pigeon-fancier’s art. The chapter also considers the new conception of the environment that arose in the 1850s from Darwin’s mathematical analyses of species. This new conception of the environment led him to argue for the power of sympatric speciation, as opposed to allopatric speciation. The hinge of his several arguments depends on attributing intentional powers to nature. Jerry Fodor complains that neo-Darwinians make a similar attribution; he’s wrong about that. But if he had examined the Origin of Species, he would have had a case.
Roman Szporluk
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195051032
- eISBN:
- 9780199854417
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195051032.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The chapter discusses Marx's synthesis of history, politics, and the future that is The Communist Manifesto. This book confronts the question of the relationship between nationalism and communism. In ...
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The chapter discusses Marx's synthesis of history, politics, and the future that is The Communist Manifesto. This book confronts the question of the relationship between nationalism and communism. In order to understand the Big Book, one has to know that Karl Marx no longer saw the need to construct a system to support his program. The principles of communism in the Manifesto were not invented. It actually sprung from the struggles of the existing class. It shows the framework of Marx's position on the nation. It is an “antinationalist manifesto”. The prospect of a national alliance was unthinkable. Two main points were brought out: firstly, Marx was not alone in his stand that Europe was in a state of crisis and secondly, Marx's contemporaries shared his myopia about nationalism. In fact, nationalism was already changing the social reality. Though at that time, not even the most influential 19th-century thinkers recognized its force.Less
The chapter discusses Marx's synthesis of history, politics, and the future that is The Communist Manifesto. This book confronts the question of the relationship between nationalism and communism. In order to understand the Big Book, one has to know that Karl Marx no longer saw the need to construct a system to support his program. The principles of communism in the Manifesto were not invented. It actually sprung from the struggles of the existing class. It shows the framework of Marx's position on the nation. It is an “antinationalist manifesto”. The prospect of a national alliance was unthinkable. Two main points were brought out: firstly, Marx was not alone in his stand that Europe was in a state of crisis and secondly, Marx's contemporaries shared his myopia about nationalism. In fact, nationalism was already changing the social reality. Though at that time, not even the most influential 19th-century thinkers recognized its force.
J. David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” ...
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This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” or simply evolution, was a hotly debated topic by the early nineteenth century. The debate lacked what Darwin provided, along with Alfred Russel Wallace: a mechanism, and the mechanism was natural selection. After the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, no one would ever look at a tree of life in the same way. This chapter looks at Darwin's tree sketches done during the 1840s and 1850s, as well as his “Big Book” that deals with evolution by means of natural selection. It also analyzes a pair of Darwin's trees with competing views on the origin of placental and marsupial mammals and another tree that reflects how Darwin saw man's place in nature.Less
This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” or simply evolution, was a hotly debated topic by the early nineteenth century. The debate lacked what Darwin provided, along with Alfred Russel Wallace: a mechanism, and the mechanism was natural selection. After the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, no one would ever look at a tree of life in the same way. This chapter looks at Darwin's tree sketches done during the 1840s and 1850s, as well as his “Big Book” that deals with evolution by means of natural selection. It also analyzes a pair of Darwin's trees with competing views on the origin of placental and marsupial mammals and another tree that reflects how Darwin saw man's place in nature.
