Survival Situation: The debate over evolution and its discoverer

https://theamericanscholar.org/survival-situation/

by samclemens • 2 years ago

17 19 2 years ago

taylodl• 2 years ago

The ancient Greek (of course!) Anaximander was the first to lay out a theory of evolution - over 2,000 years ago! He came this close to developing the theory of Natural Selection as the mechanism for evolution.

Here's the thing: people knew this. The idea of evolution was not new in Darwin's time. What was new was the idea that the mechanism of evolution could create new, and diverse species. Hence the name of Darwin's seminal work, On the Origin of Species.

bubblyworld7• 2 years ago

Really? Count me surprised if the ancients had a workable theory of evolution - there are pretty important details that you need to make the mathematics work, like the fact that inheritance comes in discrete units (which today we call genes). As far as the popular history goes that was only shown much later, when Mendel started counting his peas.

czzr• 2 years ago

Darwin didn’t know anything about genes, or how inheritance actually worked.

mannykannot• 2 years ago

After an admittedly very cursory search, I get the impression that his 'theory' is a bit like Democritus' atomic 'theory': it has the concept, but very little of the content of our current understanding (not that this in any way diminishes either of them: to still be discussed today is about as close as you can get to academic immortality.)

I also find it interesting that Charles' paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin (a doctor, author, active member of the Birmingham Lunar Society and Fellow of the Royal Society) felt that life had evolved. Furthermore, one of his arguments was one also put forward by Charles: an analogy to the breeding of domesticated animals, as can be seen on page 548 of his opus Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life.

https://early-evolution.oeb.harvard.edu/sites/hwpi.harvard.e...

LarsDu884• 2 years ago

I think a lot of folks miss the point that gene theory and evolution theory can exist independently of each other and that an understanding of genes is not a prerequisite for the understanding of evolution.

When Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection came out, it was sensible from the perspective of animal breeding. It did not explain how new variation came about, but the fossil record alone in the mid 19th century was sufficient evidence for most educated people to undeniably understand that new variation did occur over time. For reference, the first complete Archaeopteryx fossil was discovered in 1861.

It is only today with hindsight, Mendel's gene theory, and molecular evidence from electron microscopy that the whole picture is pretty clear. Variation over (really long periods of time) comes from mutation, and natural selection is only one of four major mechanisms that alters gene frequencies in a population.

The four are mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, and migration.

pfdietz2• 2 years ago

Darwin did not in fact describe a mechanism for the origin of new species. He described how existing species could change over time. How speciation occurs required some new ideas.

LarsDu884• 2 years ago

Anaximander's idea of evolution was basically just speculative fiction.

He simply suggested that man and animals came from water with no evidence whatsoever, and that early man must've needed to survive in the mouths of fish to withstand the elements.

Darwin actually collected scientific data and observations from finches, fossils, and brachiopods to substantiate his claims. The key observation needed to make the theory work was an understanding that the Earth was millions of years old, which was only recently established (speculated by folks like his grandfather Erasmus Darwin and confirmed by his colleague Charles Lyell)

jemmyw• 2 years ago

The theory of evolution evolved

Survival Situation: The debate over evolution and its discoverer

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