Article ID: CBB000550933

Deconstructing Darwin: Evolutionary Theory in Context (2005)

unapi

Hull, David L. (Author)


Journal of the History of Biology
Volume: 38
Pages: 137--152


Publication Date: 2005
Edition Details: Part of a special issue: The “Darwinian Revolution”: Whether, What and Whose?
Language: English

The topic of this paper is external versus internal explanations, first, of the genesis of evolutionary theory and, second, its reception. Victorian England was highly competitive and individualistic. So was the view of society promulgated by Malthus and the theory of evolution set out by Charles Darwin and A.R. Wallace. The fact that Darwin and Wallace independently produced a theory of evolution that was just as competitive and individualistic as the society in which they lived is taken as evidence for the impact that society has on science. The same conclusion is reached with respect to the reception of evolutionary theory. Because Darwinrsquos contemporaries lived in such a competitive and individualistic society, they were prone to accept a theory that exhibited these same characteristics. The trouble is that Darwin and Wallace did not live in anything like the same society and did not formulate the same theory. Although the character of Victorian society may have influenced the acceptance of evolutionary theory, it was not the competitive, individualistic theory that Darwin and Wallace set out but a warmer, more comforting theory.

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Article Ruse, Michael (2005) The Darwinian Revolution, as Seen in 1979 and as Seen Twenty-Five Years Later in 2004. Journal of the History of Biology (p. 3). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000550933/

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Authors & Contributors
van Wyhe, John
Shermer, Michael Brant
Stevens, P. F.
Smith, Charles Hamilton
Morris, Mary
Milner, Richard
Concepts
Evolution
Natural selection
Travel; exploration
Species concept (biology)
Biology
Biographies
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
Amazon River Region (South America)
Indonesia
South America
Malay; Malaysia
British Isles
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