Charles Darwin 29that carries his name? In one sense, no one can deny that he deserves some, a lot
in fact. Before theOrigin of Speciesappeared in 1859, the idea of evolution was a
minority position and in many respects not very respectable. After theOrigin,it
became in many circles — middle class and working class, religious and not — the
accepted position on origins. More than this, Darwin put forward the mechanism
of natural selection, and today this is generally accepted as the right mechanism.
Darwin got it right about causes.
But there is more to the question than this. Start with the period before Darwin.
There was already significant acceptance of evolutionary ideas. In Germany, the
despisedNaturphilosophenwere inclined to evolution. Even Goethe, towards the
end of his long life, embraced the idea [Richards, 2003]. In France, there was
a whole group of evolutionists around Lamarck [Corsi, 1988; 2005]. And this
continued through the century. Britain too yields many evolutionists, starting
with Charles Darwin’s own grandfather, Erasmus. He did not merely influence his
grandson. Zoonomiawas translated into German and read (and commented on)
by the aged Immanuel Kant [Ruse, 2006]. Add to this Robert Grant and Robert
Chambers and theVestiges. For all of its controversial nature and its being hated
by Sedgwick and Whewell and company, this latter work was a major inspiration
for many, and not just Wallace. The poet Alfred Tennyson, as he struggled to
finish (what rapidly became) his much-loved and read poem,In Memoriam,drew
heavily on Chambers’s thinking. Apparently Tennyson’s long-dead friend Arthur
Hallam, in whose memory the poem was written, was an anticipation of a higher
form, too precious for life today.
A soul shall strike from out the vast
And strike his being into bounds,And moved thro’ life of lower phase,
Result in man, be born and think,
And act and love, a closer link
Betwixt us and the crowning race...Whereof the man, that with me trod
This planet, was a noble type
Appearing ere the times were ripe,
That friend of mine who lives in God.
Finally, mention the general man of letters and science, Herbert Spencer, in
the 1850s just beginning his dizzying rise upwards as the people’s philosopher in
Britain and the rest of the world. In the decade before Darwin, he was publishing
evolutionary ideas including a clear statement of natural selection [Ruse, 1996;
Richards, 1987].
So there can be no claim that Darwin was the first evolutionist or even the first
with natural selection. (Do not forget Alfred Russel Wallace either.). Yet, having
said all of this, Darwin’s reputation emerges intact. Before Darwin evolution was
still little more than a pseudo science, generally accepted because people liked the