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Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries
"Not even On the Origin of Species matches the breadth of thought reflected in the notebooks, and we will never understand the Origin correctly unless we bear this breadth in mind. . . . The editors bring us about as close to the pertinent circumstances surrounding Darwin's early thought as scholarship can reasonably get."--Science
- GenresScience
Hardcover
First published December 1, 1987
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April 9, 2026
Some books are just for reading, but others are for studying. This book is firmly in the second category. You need to work hard for the intellectual reward of getting a glimpse of how Charles Darwin's mind was working during a crucial period of his life, but the effort is well worthwhile.
Apart from hard work, the other obstacle to this book is its price, especially when it is possible to see these notebooks for free on the internet. But if you can afford to cough up the money then you will gain the advantage of being able to much more easily browse through the notebooks (and, if you're like me, highlight key passages and scribble marginal notes) than you can when looking at them on a computer screen. The editors also do a good job of guiding you through.
The notebooks cover the key period when Darwin came round to the view that species had evolved from common ancestors, and then developed his own distinctive explanation (natural selection) of the mechanism of evolution.
So in about March 1837 we see Darwin's first notes on the idea of "transmutation", and then a few months later the famous "tree" diagram which illustrates branching evolution and extinction. (See page 180. My page references all relate to this book, not to the original notebooks.)
By late September 1838, after reading Malthus on population, Darwin had come up with the idea of natural selection. "One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying to force every kind of adapted structure into the gaps in the oeconomy of Nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones." (p. 375) (It is ironic that Malthus's population theory, which is actually wrong and reactionary when it comes to human society, inspired a correct theory of evolution.)
At the end of 1838 Darwin wrote that "Three principles will account for all (1) Grandchildren like grandfathers (2) Tendency for small change.. especially physical change (3) Great fertility in proportion to support of parents". (p. 412)
You can see Darwin's own shock at the fact that he was developing a philosophically materialist view of nature which does not require religious explanations of life or even of the human mind. He says to himself, "oh you Materialist!" (p. 291)
"Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals." (p. 300) "He who would understand baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke". (p. 539)
He also questioned the idea that humans are "higher" than other animals. "It is absurd to talk about one animal being higher than another. WE consider those, where the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. - A bee doubtless would when instincts were." (p. 189) "Circumstances having given to the bee its instinct is not less wonderful than man his intellect". (p. 594)
Darwin realised that his ideas were dangerous ones and that he would have to be careful. "To avoid stating how far, I believe, in Materialism, say only that emotions, instincts degrees of talent, which are hereditary are so because brain of child resemble, parent stock." (p. 532)
In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote, but did not publish, two essays in which he set out his theory quite fully. (See my review here on Amazon of "The Foundations of The Origin of Species: Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844".) But "On the Origin of Species" was not published until 1859. By then Alfred Russel Wallace had independently come up with the same theory of natural selection. But we can see from these notebooks, and from the two essays, that Darwin (as Wallace himself fully acknowledged) had developed the idea twenty years earlier.
Apart from hard work, the other obstacle to this book is its price, especially when it is possible to see these notebooks for free on the internet. But if you can afford to cough up the money then you will gain the advantage of being able to much more easily browse through the notebooks (and, if you're like me, highlight key passages and scribble marginal notes) than you can when looking at them on a computer screen. The editors also do a good job of guiding you through.
The notebooks cover the key period when Darwin came round to the view that species had evolved from common ancestors, and then developed his own distinctive explanation (natural selection) of the mechanism of evolution.
So in about March 1837 we see Darwin's first notes on the idea of "transmutation", and then a few months later the famous "tree" diagram which illustrates branching evolution and extinction. (See page 180. My page references all relate to this book, not to the original notebooks.)
By late September 1838, after reading Malthus on population, Darwin had come up with the idea of natural selection. "One may say there is a force like a hundred thousand wedges trying to force every kind of adapted structure into the gaps in the oeconomy of Nature, or rather forming gaps by thrusting out weaker ones." (p. 375) (It is ironic that Malthus's population theory, which is actually wrong and reactionary when it comes to human society, inspired a correct theory of evolution.)
At the end of 1838 Darwin wrote that "Three principles will account for all (1) Grandchildren like grandfathers (2) Tendency for small change.. especially physical change (3) Great fertility in proportion to support of parents". (p. 412)
You can see Darwin's own shock at the fact that he was developing a philosophically materialist view of nature which does not require religious explanations of life or even of the human mind. He says to himself, "oh you Materialist!" (p. 291)
"Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work worthy the interposition of a deity, more humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals." (p. 300) "He who would understand baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke". (p. 539)
He also questioned the idea that humans are "higher" than other animals. "It is absurd to talk about one animal being higher than another. WE consider those, where the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. - A bee doubtless would when instincts were." (p. 189) "Circumstances having given to the bee its instinct is not less wonderful than man his intellect". (p. 594)
Darwin realised that his ideas were dangerous ones and that he would have to be careful. "To avoid stating how far, I believe, in Materialism, say only that emotions, instincts degrees of talent, which are hereditary are so because brain of child resemble, parent stock." (p. 532)
In 1842 and 1844 Darwin wrote, but did not publish, two essays in which he set out his theory quite fully. (See my review here on Amazon of "The Foundations of The Origin of Species: Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844".) But "On the Origin of Species" was not published until 1859. By then Alfred Russel Wallace had independently come up with the same theory of natural selection. But we can see from these notebooks, and from the two essays, that Darwin (as Wallace himself fully acknowledged) had developed the idea twenty years earlier.
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