URBANOWICZ ON DARWIN
Dr. Charles F. Urbanowicz/Professor of Anthropology
California State University, Chico
Chico, California 95929-0400
(530) 898-6220
e-mail:
curbanowicz@.csuchico.edu or
http://www.csuchico.edu/~curban
3 October 1998(1)
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I attempt to "humanize" Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882), place him within the context of his times, and discuss some of the impact of his work. The presentation deals with (#1) some of the scientific research of Charles R. Darwin (1809-1882), specifically his monumental 1859 publication entitled On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life and (#2) demonstrates some of the "multimedia" attempts I have made, working with others on campus, to portray Darwin as an intelligent human being. Darwin's influence continues to be condemned, supported, and debated after almost 150 years; I am personally conducting my on-going research into Darwin with an eye towards the year 2009 which will be the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. On "change being a constant in Darwin's work" (my phrase), please consider the following changes which took place over the SIX editions of Origin (from M. Peckham, Editor, 1959, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin: A Variorum Text (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press):
|
YEAR |
COPIES |
Sentences |
Sentences |
Sentences |
TOTAL |
% CHANGE |
|
1859/1st |
1,250 |
|
|
|
3,878 |
|
|
1860/2nd |
3,000 |
9 eliminated |
483 re-written |
30 added |
3,899 |
7 % |
|
1861/3rd |
2,000 |
33 eliminated |
617 re-written |
266 added |
4,132 |
14 % |
|
1866/4th |
1,500 |
36 eliminated |
1073 re-written |
435 added |
4,531 |
21 % |
|
1869/5th |
2,000 |
178 eliminated |
1770 re-written |
227 added |
4,580 |
29 % |
|
1872/6th |
3,000 |
63 eliminated |
1699 re-written |
571 added |
5,088 |
21-29 % |
In the 1869 edition Darwin used the famous phrase "Survival of the Fittest" (borrowed from Herbert Spencer [1820-1903]). In 1859 Darwin originally only wrote the following about human beings: "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" and by the 6th edition of 1872, he wrote:
"In the future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be securely based on the foundation already well laid by Mr. Herbert Spencer, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." (Chapter XV, "Recapitulation and Conclusions")."
Darwin has also been called an "atheist" by some, but note that in the second edition of 1860 Darwin had the following words in closing (and incorporated them into all editions published in his lifetime):
"Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator [STRESS added] into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."