Upon reading up on all five of the individuals who influenced Darwin in one way or another, I believe that the one who was most influential to him and his work was Alfred Russell Wallace. (It has also been said that Wallace was the one who originally came up with the theory of Natural Selection and Darwin took credit for the work). In the Encyclopedia Britannica's website article entitled "Alfred Russell Wallace: The Career of a Naturalist" last accessed on February 2015, it says that Wallace co-wrote an article with Darwin called "On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Selection", which was both of their theories combined into one. Wallace believed that species arise by outliving the parent species in the struggle to survive. In the same article, it states: "Every species has come into existence coincident both in space and time with a pre-existing closely allied species.... New species arise by the progression and continued divergence of varieties that outlive the parent species in the struggle for existence". In other words, what this means is that although species evolve and change with time as was Darwin's argument in his theory, only the strongest evolve and survive, but still have a bit of the genes/organisms of the original species. Wallace believed that animals and the animal population would increase or change based on the environment that they were in. They needed to grow or mutate in order to adapt to their changing environment, but would not do so if the environment was the same; it was not necessary. As we can clearly see, Wallaces' work was very influential to Darwin, being as how we see the similarities in Darwin's work. In Darwin's theory, we can see Wallaces' beliefs at play, Darwin believed in Common Descent, which was that "organisms are descended from one another, or several common ancestors and have diversified from this original stock", a point that Wallace talks about in his works and believed in. I think that Darwin could have developed his theory of Natural Selection without Wallace's influence, being as how they both agreed with one another on certain things, but I think that Darwin needed confirmation, per say, about what he believed and he found that in Wallace, maybe not entirely, as we can now see that Darwin tweaked bits of Wallace's work that he did not agree with. Upon publication, the book "The Origin of Species" was met with mixed reviews. The church of England was against it, while liberal Anglicans were all for it.
I accessed my information from the website: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/634738/Alfred-Russel-Wallace/93553/The-career-of-a-naturalist
So here's a different post. A few of the posts I have read including mine were Thomas Malthus. But I see that you have talked about Alfred Russel Wallace. What I found the most interesting in all of this was that Wallace was said to be the original founder of the idea of natural selection. Not to take anything away from Darwin but I don't think he could have done everything by himself. He did need the help of Wallace just as you mentioned in your post.
ReplyDelete"It has also been said that Wallace was the one who originally came up with the theory of Natural Selection and Darwin took credit for the work."
ReplyDeleteSaid by whom? That is a serious question. For these papers, stick to the facts that can be supported by evidence. Darwin was working on his theory for more than 20 years before he began a correspondence with Wallace, and this is supported by his research papers, notes and letters.
"As we can clearly see, Wallaces' work was very influential to Darwin, being as how we see the similarities in Darwin's work."
Again, given that Darwin had been researching and writing for 20 years before his contact with Wallace, and given that they jointly published shortly after their first contact, I suggest it is good to recognize the similarities in the theories but illogical to look for a predominant influence of one over the other. This isn't to say that Wallace didn't have a great influence over Darwin, but it may have been less scientific and more logistical. Wallace provided the impetus Darwin needed to finally publish his work. I do wonder if Darwin would have ever published without the fear that he would lose credit to Wallace.
"Upon publication, the book "The Origin of Species" was met with mixed reviews. The church of England was against it, while liberal Anglicans were all for it."
The theory was first published in that joint paper with Darwin and Wallace and Darwin published his book later, but that isn't the question in the guidelines. The question asks about the influence of the church on Darwin's decision to publish his work in the first place. Darwin delayed more than 20 years to publish his theory. Why? What were his concerns? And how did the church play a role in this delay?
I would have to agree with most of what you wrote because I also picked Wallace as the person who had the most influence on Darwin. After reading Professor Rodriguez's comment i would have to agree that Darwin had been researching 20 years before even having any contact with Wallace which is something i forget to mention as well in my blog but I do think Wallace did motivate Darwin to present his paper so Wallace wouldn't get credit for his theory on the natural selection. Now regarding what you wrote about the church i think personally didn't answer what the point was asking. It asked how the church affected him and just to give a short answer example would be it affected him because at that time everyone would give negative comment towards his theory which out Darwin's fear delayed his process. Now with that said that's why i also agree that Wallace had an great influence now Darwin because if it wasn't for competition in the same interest Darwin may have not even presented his paper out of fear of the church and what the people had to say.
ReplyDelete