Darwinist Theory

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses the text 'One Long Argument: Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought' by Ernst Mayr. The writer contends that Mayr shows that the Darwinian Revolution was the most far-reaching of all intellectual upheavals of the Victorian age and this stems from the Victorian assertion of the supremacy of human rationality and the importance of the human moral triumph over the baser morality of animals. The writer maintains that Mayr's book is a clear and unapologetic outline and defense of Darwin's theories combined with an intelligent explanation of why theories are accepted or not accepted socially, and by the scientific academic community. It also shows how Darwin's theory is not a constant, but has been expanded upon by biologists since Darwin's death, by scientists such as August Wiseman, Mayr and others.

From the Paper:

"The centrality of reproduction in Darwin's writings was quite shocking to many Victorians as the mechanism or the determination of the origin of a new species was the inability of one species to mate with the other species, generated purely by environmental needs not by appearance, as assumed in previous attempts at categorization. This brought to the forefront one of the most important insights that Darwin illuminated, namely the slow but steady nature of the change of all animal species in the environment through the process of natural selection. Animals as individuals did not change--another challenge to the Victorian stress upon the ability of human self-improvement. Rather, the more environmental suited or fittest of a species survived, and reproduced, causing new species eventually to be formed from these more environmentally suited beings. Fighting over scarce resources like food and shelter caused other species to die out."

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