fact,Darwinalreadyhadextensivenotes onthetheorythat
Homo sapiens had descended from other animals, but he
decidedthatpublishingthismaterialwould“onlyaddtothe
prejudices againstmyviews.”^38 Onlyin1871, whenmany
scientistshad acceptedthegeneraltheoryof evolution,did
Darwin publish TheDescent of Man,thus making explicit
whathadbeenconcealedinasinglesentenceofhisearlier
work.
So began a revolution in human understanding of the
relationshipbetweenourselvesandthenonhumananimals...
ordidit?Onewouldexpecttheintellectualupheavalsparked
bythepublicationofthetheoryofevolutiontohavemadea
markeddifferencein humanattitudesto animals.Once the
weightofscientificevidenceinfavorofthetheorybecame
apparent,practicallyeveryearlierjustificationofoursupreme
place in creation and
our dominion over the animals had to be reconsidered.
Intellectually the Darwinian revolution was genuinely
revolutionary.Humanbeings nowknewthattheywerenot
thespecialcreationofGod,madeinthedivineimageandset
apartfromtheanimals;onthecontrary,humanbeingscame
to realizethattheywere animals themselves. Moreover,in
supportofhistheoryofevolution,Darwinpointedoutthatthe
differencesbetweenhumanbeingsand animalswerenotso
greataswasgenerallysupposed.Chapter 3 ofTheDescentof
Man is devoted to a comparison of themental powers of
humansandthe“loweranimals,”andDarwinsummarizesthe
results of this comparison as follows:
We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various
emotionsandfaculties,suchaslove,memory,attentionand
curiosity,imitation,reasonetc.,ofwhichmanboasts,mayhe