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Essay: Evolution & theology
Summary
—by Asa Gray EVOLUTION AND THEOLOGY The Nation, January 15, 1874 The attitude of theologians toward doctrines of evolution, from the nebular hypothesis down to ‘Darwinism,’ is no less worthy of consideration, and hardly less diverse, than that of…
Matches: 13 hits
- … short and easy, if not wholly satisfactory, way of refuting scientific doctrines which they object …
- … of these writers has done, it is as well that the weight of opinion should be distributed, even if …
- … authority of an interpretation of Scripture. A consensus of opinion upon Dr. Hodge’s ground, for …
- … and their history, the theologians are apt to suppose that scientific men of the present day are …
- … living things as better explaining all the phenomena. In his opinion, it has become ‘infinitely more …
- … which is likely to be largely held, if not to prevail, on scientific grounds. It may be well to …
- … have guarded his. ground if he had chosen to do so. Our own opinion, after long consideration, is, …
- … natural world is so done; and it is the proper business of scientific men to push their enquiries in …
- … as a proper exercise of the mind preparatory to forming an opinion. Probabilities, hypotheses, and …
- … upon Christian theology and its foundations from a scientific layman’s point of view, with …
- … felt unable to present them in a satisfactory manner from a scientific point of view. We note, …
- … matters are viewed by an honest, enlightened, and devout scientific man. To solve the mysteries of …
- … as regards matters of fact, discreet as to matters of opinion. The argument from design in the first …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 8 hits
- … had ambitions to make the asylum at Wakefield a centre of scientific research, and toward this end …
- … classes, and had attracted some interest from members of the scientific community as well. Wallace …
- … which he viewed as a wholly natural phenomenon, subject to scientific investigation and explanation. …
- … Detailed discussion of pangenesis had been scarce in scientific literature, and the appearance of …
- … our hypothesis with all its imperfections’ ( letter to Scientific Opinion , [before 20 October …
- … 1869 ). Darwin was uniformly pleased. ‘I like all scientific periodicals’, he wrote to Hooker, …
- … New correspondents Yet despite his enthusiasm for scientific journals, Darwin’s most …
- … own. Darwin advised and encouraged the younger man in his scientific work, much as he had done with …
Interview with Randal Keynes
Summary
Randal Keynes is a great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and the author of Annie’s Box (Fourth Estate, 2001), which discusses Darwin’s home life, his relationship with his wife and children, and the ways in which these influenced his feelings about…
Matches: 8 hits
- … popular portraits of Darwin as the solitary genius, and of scientific discovery as a product of a …
- … point to make is really that in those first years of his scientific work, on the Beagle and then …
- … really capture the poetry that's in his own writing and his scientific sensibility. …
- … to have to read again - very much as he annotated his own scientific library: very systematic and …
- … questioning, always searching, never complacent in his own scientific work) - and? I'm seeing a …
- … also concerned about sympathy as a potential impediment to scientific research, studying emotions in …
- … so well that what is actually, I'm almost certain, a purely scientific observation, is …
- … human mind and experience. 14. Darwin's opinion of human nature …
New material added to the American edition of Origin
Summary
A ‘revised and augmented’ American edition of Origin came on the market in July 1860, and was the only authorised edition available in the US until 1873. It incorporated many of the changes Darwin made to the second English edition, but still contained…
Matches: 6 hits
- … my notions shd be read by intelligent men, accustomed to scientific argument though not …
- … a brief, but I fear imperfect, sketch of the progress of opinion on the Origin of Species . …
- … see how the two supposed ‘‘impulses’’ account in a scientific sense for the numerous and beautiful …
- … editions little accurate knowledge and a great want of scientific caution, immediately had a very …
- … de l’Acad. Roy. Bruxelles, tom. xiii., p. 581), his opinion that it is more probable that new …
- … been separately created: the author first promulgated this opinion in 1831. M. Isidore …
Scientific Networks
Summary
Friendship|Mentors|Class|Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections between people, places, and things that channel the communication of knowledge, and that substantially determine both its intellectual form and content,…
Matches: 8 hits
- … | Class | Gender In its broadest sense, a scientific network is a set of connections …
- … as Joseph Dalton Hooker and Asa Gray, who were at leading scientific institutions and who carried …
- … structures were largely absent. Darwin had a small circle of scientific friends with whom he shared …
- … ties could be built gradually through the exchange of scientific knowledge and the free expression …
- … Oct & 7 Nov 1834 Darwin is excited by Henslow’s high opinion of his collections. He …
- … themselves. Scott’s work is not science, but “scientific horticulture”. Letter 4471 — …
- … of letters provides a window into his interaction with scientific women. Letter 4170 — …
- … his wife Emma. The letter is a combination of personal and scientific matters. He reports on his …
Darwin in letters, 1844–1846: Building a scientific network
Summary
The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working life, but he broadened his continuing investigations into the nature and origin of species. Far from being a recluse, Darwin was at the heart of British scientific society,…
Matches: 6 hits
- … The scientific results of the Beagle voyage still dominated Darwin's working …
- … established and confident naturalist at the heart of British scientific society, travelling often to …
- … the community of savants as well as in its philosophical and scientific pursuits. At home, time was …
- … confessing a murder) immutable Darwin’s earlier scientific friendships were not neglected …
- … turned to when he wished to discuss the problems and various scientific issues that arose out of his …
- … naturalist Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, to support his own opinion that the pampas formations had …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 22 hits
- … got in touch, and, for all his fears, Darwin found several scientific topics to pursue. …
- … old and new when revising his essay on Erasmus Darwin’s scientific work, and that Darwin had …
- … in newspapers and literary periodicals rather than the scientific press, the Darwins consulted the …
- … kindness’, and to state how gratified he was that so many scientific men had so good an opinion of …
- … Cooke on 31 July , ‘& if Mr. Murray really thinks that a scientific work would sell …
- … ). Josef Popper, an expert on aeronautics, sought CD’s opinion on a bird-powered flying machine, …
- … evolution and the animal origin of humans as the orthodox scientific belief. However, he objected …
- … Keeping up In addition to the stream of unsolicited scientific material Darwin received, he …
- … of it’ ( letter to Alexander Agassiz, 5 May 1881 ). His scientific friends, however, did not agree …
- … on the advances in geology over the past fifty years. In his opinion the most important had been the …
- … whether he could call Alexander von Humboldt the greatest scientific traveller, as it was ‘the …
- … stimulus, stating that he thought Humboldt ‘the greatest scientific traveller who ever lived ... …
- … ‘the Prince of Wales may meet quietly some of the chief scientific visitors’, he felt obliged to …
- … The success of Horace’s recently established Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company led Darwin to …
- … November [1881] ). Darwin was as solicitous about his least scientific son as his most brilliant …
- … of how the book would come to be used to demonstrate the scientific method in future science classes …
- … or any more original work.’ Darwin also believed that his opinion signified little: ‘I have no doubt …
- … confidence must have been boosted by this and by Vines’s opinion that Wiesner was not to be trusted …
- … respect for them’. Darwin also decided to give more to the scientific community during his lifetime. …
- … surplus income, ‘I shall ... probably give away more for scientific purposes, so that a less sum …
- … that he asked for no more. Darwin also offered funds to scientific institutions and causes. After …
- … any other contributor. His most important gift and enduring scientific legacy was his pledge in 1881 …
Darwin in letters, 1860: Answering critics
Summary
On 7 January 1860, John Murray published the second edition of Darwin’s Origin of species, printing off another 3000 copies to satisfy the demands of an audience that surprised both the publisher and the author. It wasn't long, however, before ‘the…
Matches: 10 hits
- … Origin : reactions and reviews But it was the opinion of scientific men that was Darwin’s …
- … Appendix VII.) The difficulties that members of the scientific community found in Origin …
- … different from saying that I depart from right principles of scientific investigation.—’ ( letter …
- … to explain why Darwin was delighted by the defence of his scientific method by the young Cambridge …
- … John Stuart Mill’s exposition of the deductive method of scientific investigation, consisting of …
- … were raised against the theory on the basis of existing scientific evidence. Several correspondents, …
- … addressed the question of man, among other difficult scientific problems, and set the tone for …
- … Powell and Charles Kingsley attested. Moreover, theological opinion has to be gauged as much in …
- … by Henslow’s defence of the integrity of Darwin’s scientific motivation, Sedgwick admitted that he …
- … Gray and design in nature This was not, however, his opinion of Asa Gray, who Darwin thought …
Robert FitzRoy
Summary
Robert FitzRoy was captain of HMS Beagle when Darwin was aboard. From 1831 to 1836 the two men lived in the closest proximity, their relationship revealed by the letters they exchanged while Darwin left the ship to explore the countries visited during the…
Matches: 6 hits
- … too often viewed through Darwin’s increasingly negative opinion of his once ‘ beau ideal ’ of a …
- … every thing that is delightful ’ and ‘ very scientific ’. Despite Darwin’s company, FitzRoy broke …
- … to become part of a progressive reforming metropolitan scientific elite, soon being appointed …
- … ‘ most devout abhorrence is one of the d——d scientific Whigs ’. Although FitzRoy’s …
- … had spent the Beagle voyage largely in unison about its scientific aims, and able to overcome …
- … conceit & folly ’, that criticised Origin on shaky scientific grounds. A year later, Darwin …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 8 hits
- … varied botanical experiments, and continuing a massive scientific correspondence. Six months later …
- … dwindled considerably. The correspondence and Darwin’s scientific work diminished even further when …
- … public role in the controversies that embroiled Britain’s scientific circles following the …
- … told Hooker of his regret that he had ‘truckled to public opinion & used Pentateuchal term of …
- … he fully expected it would become the ‘generally received opinion of men of science’ that organic …
- … ( letter to Charles Lyell, 18 April [1863] ). a scientific man had better be trampled …
- … popular press, he admired a satiric rendition in Public Opinion of the recent quarrels that he …
- … perceptions, his theory was gathering support in influential scientific circles. George Bentham …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 9 hits
- … are prevailing and likely to prevail, more or less, among scientific men, I have thought it …
- … completely tired. GRAY: He was seldom seen even at scientific meetings, and never in …
- … and I am almost convinced – quite contraryto [the] opinion I started with – that speciesare not – it …
- … to what I imagine Hooker has been writing and to your own scientific conscience. I presume he has …
- … 57 My dear Dr Gray… I shall be glad of your opinion of Darwin and Wallace’s paper. …
- … 71 [I] consider the transmutation theory a scientific mistake, untrue in facts, unscientific …
- … that species ‘have no secondary cause.’… Surely the scientific mind of an age which contemplates the …
- … has written me, taking me seriously to task for altering my opinion after the age of 45, and for …
- … surprise. Although he had addressed himself simply to scientific men, and had no thought of arguing …
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 1 hits
- … Schön, Johannes (1) Scientific Opinion (1) …
British Association meeting 1860
Summary
Several letters refer to events at the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Oxford, 26 June – 3 July 1860. Darwin had planned to attend the meeting but in the end was unable to. The most famous incident of the meeting was the verbal…
Matches: 3 hits
- … is possible to determine the law of the variation of Greek opinion, and to establish its analogy …
- … to it,—he could not presume to address the audience as a scientific authority. As, however, he had …
- … having adopted them as a creed. He knew no creeds in scientific matters. He had early begun the …
Clémence Auguste Royer
Summary
Getting Origin translated into French was harder than Darwin had expected. The first translator he approached, Madame Belloc, turned him down on the grounds that the content was ‘too scientific‘, and then in 1860 the French political exile Pierre…
Matches: 4 hits
- … him down on the grounds that the content was ‘ too scientific ‘, and then in 1860 the French …
- … and actively politicise another’s work was not just bad scientific practice – it was also, and more …
- … de Paris , she criticized a male-controlled scientific establishment in no uncertain terms: “Up …
- … discipline to which she submits as part of law, custom or opinion. “Woman,” she concluded, “is not …
Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 8 hits
- … of the year, Darwin seemed resigned to their difference of opinion, but complained ( letter to T. H …
- … 11 July [1862] ). She had had assistance with the scientific details of Origin from Edouard …
- … the area did not at first seem to hold much of potential scientific interest. He told Hooker ( …
- … sent an abstract of his results to Hooker, asking for his opinion as an aid in deciding ‘some future …
- … making a reputation for himself as a botanist. Hooker, whose opinion ‘on any scientific subject’ …
- … was opposition to its publication. Ramsay wanted Darwin’s opinion ( see letter from A. C. Ramsay, …
- … can pick a hole in the reasoning’, Jukes sought Darwin’s opinion. Darwin replied with a plethora of …
- … ). Huxley also wanted Darwin’s palaeontological opinion: what did Darwin think of his …
The Lyell–Lubbock dispute
Summary
In May 1865 a dispute arose between John Lubbock and Charles Lyell when Lubbock, in his book Prehistoric times, accused Lyell of plagiarism. The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took immediate action…
Matches: 5 hits
- … The dispute caused great dismay among many of their mutual scientific friends, some of whom took …
- … further at this time. His correspondence with Lyell on scientific topics continued to be very …
- … he then showed the note to Huxley and asked for his opinion on the matter. Huxley wrote, ‘I have …
- … involvement in the dispute. When Hooker pressed him for an opinion ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 …
- … 23: 79–97. Wilson, Leonard Gilchrist. 2002. A scientific libel: John Lubbock’s attack upon …
Review: The Origin of Species
Summary
- by Asa Gray THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION (American Journal of Science and Arts, March, 1860) This book is already exciting much attention. Two American editions are announced, through which it will become familiar to many…
Matches: 24 hits
- … that the flavor is lost to the general or even to the scientific reader. The volume itself—the proof …
- … his pen, and to seek in distant lands the entire repose from scientific labor so essential to the …
- … far as possible, Darwin’s aim and processes are strictly scientific, and his endeavor, whether …
- … between the facts is only intellectual ’—an opinion which the analogy of the inorganic world, …
- … In doing so, however, he is not supposed to be offering a scientific explanation of the phenomena. …
- … foundations combined, a theory of Nature as theistic and as scientific as that which he has so …
- … can hardly be said to have undertaken either line, in a scientific way. He would explain the whole …
- … Mr. Darwin attempts both lines of proof, and in a strictly scientific spirit; but the stress falls …
- … proceeds to show, adducing cogent reasons for the common opinion that all have descended from the …
- … causes of variation are unknown. Mr. Darwin favors the opinion of the late Mr. Knight, the great …
- … seems well made out in the case of pigeons. The common opinion upon this subject therefore probably …
- … of numerous specimens exhibit differences which in his opinion entitle them to be distinguished into …
- … suggestive of derivation, and unaccountable upon any other scientific view—deferring all attempts to …
- … and concern us is, that it should be so denounced by a scientific man, on the broad assumption that …
- … may be tested by one or two analogous cases. The common scientific as well as popular belief is that …
- … and hydrogen, iron, gold, and the like. Is the speculative opinion now increasingly held, that some …
- … of this view is reckoned as one of the greatest scientific triumphs of this century. Perhaps, …
- … morally, for having some foundation in fact. In our opinion, then, it is far easier to …
- … theory, than to establish the theory itself upon adequate scientific evidence. Perhaps scarcely any …
- … equally exposed. Yet the nebular hypothesis finds general scientific acceptance, and is adopted as …
- … work. How the author of this book harmonizes his scientific theory with his philosophy and …
- … examination of the theory itself, and of the interesting scientific points which are brought to bear …
- … for some other convenient opportunity. The work is a scientific one, rigidly restricted to …
- … mysterious than ever. How far the author has succeeded, the scientific world will in due time be …
Gaston de Saporta
Summary
The human-like qualities of great apes have always been a source of scientific and popular fascination, and no less in the Victorian period than in any other. Darwin himself, of course, marshalled similarities in physiology, behaviour and emotional…
Matches: 3 hits
- … qualities of great apes have always been a source of scientific and popular fascination, and no less …
- … beings and other great apes too disquieting to use as scientific evidence? Correspondence …
- … letter in which he both praised the work and expressed his opinion that Darwin may have argued for …
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 10 hits
- … John Jenner Weir, ‘If any man wants to gain a good opinion of his fellow man, he ought to do what I …
- … of popular works on natural history. Lewes had serious scientific ambitions, especially in the …
- … , ‘I do not at all care about any necessary expense for a scientific purpose.’ females …
- … suggested that Farrer communicate some of his results to a scientific journal, adding: ‘what a …
- … you have given to the minds of France! … All friends of scientific truth must rally around the flag …
- … I am not sure whether it w d not be wisest for scientific men quite to ignore the whole subject …
- … September 1868] , ‘whether it w d not be wisest for scientific men quite to ignore the whole …
- … of Sciences and Arts, which Hooker considered ‘the only scientific distinction of the kind … worth a …
- … and the general dullness of a forced holiday from his scientific work. But he came to enjoy the …
- … a reminder of the role his friend often played in their scientific correspondence. As he wrote to …
Journal of researches
Summary
Within two months of the Beagle’s arrival back in England in October 1836, Darwin, although busy with distributing his specimens among specialists for description, and more interested in working on his geological research, turned his mind to the task of…
Matches: 9 hits
- … networks on which he would rely for the rest of his scientific career. This flurry of …
- … much FitzRoy himself had facilitated the opportunity for a scientific gentleman to be accommodated …
- … and Darwin had spent the voyage largely in unison about its scientific aims, and able to overcome …
- … Journal was already known to some extent in the scientific community because Darwin had circulated …
- … from the publisher. William Buckland praised its ‘ high scientific merits ’; Richard Owen thought …
- … C. F. A. Hartmann thought it ‘ one of the best scientific travelworks of this time ’ and intended …
- … Darwin most likely appreciated above all came from his scientific hero Alexander von Humboldt, who …
- … publish a second edition. ‘If I may at all judge from the opinion of scientific acquaintances,’ he …
- … ’. There had been ‘ a good deal to alter in the scientific part ’ and, for his now stand-alone …
