From Chauncey Wright 2 September 1872
Summary
Arranges to visit CD at Down.
| Author: | Chauncey Wright |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 170 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8507 |
From Chauncey Wright 9 September 1872
Summary
Discusses the mental powers and habits of animals and considers that those of man are not separated from those of animals by any sort of fundamental barrier; the gulf seems formidable only from a self-conscious, human point of view. Man’s important distinction is his greater ability to act and respond independently of external stimuli, in consequence of his internal accumulation of personal experience.
| Author: | Chauncey Wright |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 9 Sept 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 171 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8515 |
From Chauncey Wright 29 August 1872
Summary
Discusses ideas on the development of language; agrees with CD that it is a process governed by unconscious selection; he considers it analogous to unconscious selection of domestic animals by savages. Remarks on the differing views of Max Müller and W. D. Whitney regarding the origin of language and its development. Comments on the extent to which unintentional effects can be ascribed directly to the agency of free intelligent wills.
| Author: | Chauncey Wright |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 29 Aug 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 181: 169 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8493 |
