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16 Darwin's Place in the History of Thought: A Reevaluation--Robert J. Richards
Pages 329-342

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From page 329...
... And if it comes down to individuals who have altered our understanding of who we are, what we have been and, perhaps, what we can become, then, i think, Darwin stands alone. And if the concept of revolution still carries conceptual weight, which i believe it does, he staged a singular revolution in thought, as Michael ruse and Daniel Dennett have argued in this symposium.
From page 330...
... The usual assumption is that Darwin killed those barren virgins of teleology and of purpose, scorned moral interpretations of nature, and strode into the modern world escorting the stylish concepts of modern materialism and secularism. i believe, on the contrary, that Darwin's theory preserved nature's moral purpose and used teleological means of doing so.
From page 331...
... . it was a scientific travel adventure written by Alexander von humboldt, the German romantic and friend of the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
From page 332...
... however, his own heritage and reading of his Grandfather's book Zoonomia (Darwin, 1794–1796) and the works of Jean Baptiste de lamarck -- both the elder Darwin and lamarck argued for the transmutation of species -- they would have primed him to be conscious of the possibility of species mutation, a possibility rejected at the time by virtually all naturalists of standing in england.
From page 333...
... Darwin's final-cause explanation goes this way: sexual generation exists for the purpose of bringing social animals into existence; and the final cause or purpose of social animals is to bring into existence animals with moral sentiments, namely human beings. Darwin concluded this finalcause consideration with: "Man is [the]
From page 334...
... later, in The Descent of Man, he would advance precisely the model of the social insects to explain the human acquisition of innate, altruistic impulses. NATURAL SELECTION AS AN INTELLIGENT AND MORAL FORCE no expression of Darwin's principle of evolutionary change comes more trippingly to our lips than "the mechanism of natural selection." But it's a phrase that did not pass Darwin's lips, because he had anything but a mechanistic conception of the actions of selection.
From page 335...
... Thus, as Darwin initially conceived natural selection, it hardly functioned in a mechanical or machine-like way; rather, it acted as an intelligent and moral force. The difficulties the model was meant to solve were ultimately 3.
From page 336...
... A sophisticated reader could accept Darwin as harbinger of the modern world while still taking comfort in the verities of the ancient world. one of Darwin first reviewers, T
From page 337...
... he then provides an operational test -- at least in imagination -- of this consequence. if eocene creatures adapted to a particular environment were put in competition with modern animals, Darwin conjectures, "the eocene fauna or flora would certainly be beaten and exterminated" (1859, p.
From page 338...
... hence, Darwin had to give an evolutionary account of man's distinctive acquirement, if his theory were to be successful and if its ultimate concern should be realized. The Descent of Man Most contemporary interpreters of Darwin's accomplishment presume that evolutionary theory left man morally naked to the world.
From page 339...
... . Although moral impulses would initially be confined to tribal members, cultural evolution and progressive learning, Darwin believed, would gradually instruct our ancestors that we were all part of the same human family; so that now, at least among members of advanced civilizations, moral instincts would be activated by any and all human beings.
From page 340...
... John Milton, Paradise Lost, 4.ll.172–301 With the Fall, Milton yet foresees the coming of the redeemer whose own death will transform the world and bring a transformed life. At the end of the Origin, Darwin as well imagines an "entangled bank, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth" (1859, p.
From page 341...
... The slow, gradual, and progressive character that the Origin projected, huxley thought unwarranted, and insisted on a more mechanical, jumpy kind of evolution. huxley, for quite personal reasons, rejected the sort of moral theory that Darwin -- and spencer -- had proposed.


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