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"Few people can experience now what Darwin's contemporaries did when The Origin of Species was first published, because everyone now is raised either to take ev

by aaronsw 17y ago

"Few people can experience now what Darwin's contemporaries did when The Origin of Species was first published, because everyone now is raised either to take evolution for granted, or to regard it as a heresy. No one encounters the idea of natural selection for the first time as an adult." It's interesting to read this in the context of _The Selfish Gene_. Mary Midgley (who wrote a scathing attack on the book[1]) once suggested that she probably found it hard to appreciate its virtues because she'd read the ideas in it so many times before -- by the time the book came out they hardly seemed novel to her. [1]: http://www.royalinstitutephilosophy.org/articles/article.php?id=14 http://www.royalinstitutephilosophy.org/articles/article.php... "So if you want to discover things that have been overlooked till now, one really good place to look is in our blind spot: in our natural, naive belief that it's all about us. And expect to encounter ferocious opposition if you do." Peter Singer is a good case study in this.

jacobolus 17y ago
Actually, this statement of PG’s about Darwin’s contemporaries is pretty oversimplified. Evolution-like ideas had been “in the air” for several decades when Darwin published, and at the time, many regarded them as heresy (by default), while others had bought into them. Natural selection was indeed a new idea, but while it strengthened the argument for evolution tremendously by providing a plausible mechanism, and while the giant pile of evidence in Darwin’s book was extremely important, the debates at the time weren’t all that different in tone from the ones that happen today (except that today all of the legitimate scientists are on one side these days). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought Lamark’s main works were from the turn of the 19th century, as was Cuvier’s work on extinction, and Darwin’s uncle Erasmus’s descriptions of “metamorphoses”. Paley’s Natural Theology, which originated the famous “watchmaker” analogy for God, was from 1802. The Vestiges, published anonymously in 1844, sparked massive controversy that was the talk of “educated” people throughout the world. Indeed, when Darwin finally published the Origin in 1859, the scientific/religious debate had been widespread for 50 years, and in the general public consciousness for at least a decade or two; Darwin himself had been well aware of it as a young man.

by aaronsw 17y ago

jacobolus 17y ago

Actually, this statement of PG’s about Darwin’s contemporaries is pretty oversimplified. Evolution-like ideas had been “in the air” for several decades when Darwin published, and at the time, many regarded them as heresy (by default), while others had bought into them. Natural selection was indeed a new idea, but while it strengthened the argument for evolution tremendously by providing a plausible mechanism, and while the giant pile of evidence in Darwin’s book was extremely important, the debates at the time weren’t all that different in tone from the ones that happen today (except that today all of the legitimate scientists are on one side these days). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought Lamark’s main works were from the turn of the 19th century, as was Cuvier’s work on extinction, and Darwin’s uncle Erasmus’s descriptions of “metamorphoses”. Paley’s Natural Theology, which originated the famous “watchmaker” analogy for God, was from 1802. The Vestiges, published anonymously in 1844, sparked massive controversy that was the talk of “educated” people throughout the world. Indeed, when Darwin finally published the Origin in 1859, the scientific/religious debate had been widespread for 50 years, and in the general public consciousness for at least a decade or two; Darwin himself had been well aware of it as a young man.