The Origin of Species in Classics and the Western Canon

Sep 18, 2013 Clif Hostetler rated it liked it

Shelves: science

My book group selected this book for discussion probably because of the historic impact it has had on the field of science. However, I found it to be very worthy of respect from a literary viewpoint. Charles Darwin's writing comes across as a methodical thinker and patient explainer to many recalcitrant readers who are determined not to believe a word he says. He had me convinced after only a couple dozen pages, but he kept doing what seemed to me to be piling on observation after observation, e My book group selected this book for discussion probably because of the historic impact it has had on the field of science. However, I found it to be very worthy of respect from a literary viewpoint. Charles Darwin's writing comes across as a methodical thinker and patient explainer to many recalcitrant readers who are determined not to believe a word he says. He had me convinced after only a couple dozen pages, but he kept doing what seemed to me to be piling on observation after observation, explanation after explanation, until after a while I felt like crying out, "Enough already, I believe!"

Frankly, I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge about the natural world already accumulated by the middle of the 19th century as demonstrated by this book. There are obvious things poor old Darwin didn't know about, one of them being the laws of genealogy discovered by Gregor Johann Mendel. Mendel was a contemporary of Darwin, and I have heard that a published copy of Mendel's study was on Darwin's book shelves but it hadn't been opened or read. Of course Darwin wasn't the only person who ignored Mendel. Mendel's work wasn't appreciated for its contribution to understanding of inherited traits until after his death. Meanwhile Darwin is writing this book giving many observations regarding the variability of crossings of various plants and animals, but doesn't understand why.

Also, Darwin was plagued with physicists of the time who calculated that earth couldn't be as old as needed for Darwin's theory of natural selection to accomplish all the required changes. The physicists were basing their calculations of the rate cooling of the core of the earth. Of course they were wrong; what they didn't know about was radioactive decay which gives off heat they weren't making allowances for. It turns out the earth is even older than Darwin would have guessed.

And of course the really big advance of science that Darwin didn't know about was the DNA double helix. Darwin insists that life forms need to be classed according to genealogy, and he speculates that in the future scientists will be able to classify life forms more accurately as more knowledge is obtained about them. Darwin would be amazed to know how precisely genealogy can be determined these days. For example, it can be determined that humans are more closely related to fungi than to photosynthetic plants.

I listened to the audio version of this book. This is an example of a book that is much easier to listen to than to read because of all the big Latin words used in describing species. Having the words read aloud made them fit into the context of the sentence much better than if I were trying to read (and probably skip over) those unfamiliar words.

There were six editions of "Origin of Species" in Darwin's life time. It could be argued that the 1859 edition is the second best version of this book with the 1860 British edition being slightly better in that it contains some insignificant, but non-substantive, corrections. The editions of 1861, 1866, 1869, and 1872 are all inferior. In them Darwin made changes and expansions in an effort to meet the objections that arose during those times. The modifications expanded the book and clouded the argument. Since most of the objections that were raised would be regarded as silly today, Darwin's arguments against them are of interest for social history, but not for Darwin's theory. I think that most published copies today are based on the 1872 edition. If you have an earlier edition you will find that it is shorter and, as indicated above, is probably better.

The following quotation is from the sixth edition and not in the earlier editions. It is from a section of the book on instincts and follows a couple paragraphs discussing the habit of some birds to lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species. Mr. Darwin has just sighted some of the observations of the nesting habits of a type of cowbird [Molothrus Bonariensis] written by a naturalist colleague.

"Mr. Hudson is a strong disbeliever in evolution, but he appears to have been much struck by the imperfect instincts of the Molothrus Bonariensis that he quotes my words and asks, 'must we consider these habits not as an especially endowed or created instincts but as small consequences of one general law, namely transitions?' "

I take from the above that Darwin was enjoying the irony of a naturalist from the creationist camp finding it difficult to attribute to God the endowment of the slothful nest making habits to the cowbird. Since the behavior is repugnant it must have been caused by that old nasty evolution stuff (i.e. the work of the devil). ...more

34 likes · Like · see review

Apr 02, 2011 David S. T. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

I figured while I was on my evolution book kick, I might as well go back to the original (well sort of the original, Alfred Russel Wallace published a paper on natural selection which prompted Darwin to publish this “abstract”). Now that I'm finished I feel two different ways about the book, a loved yet bored type of feeling. First I'm amazed at just how much of Darwin's theories and ideas are accurate and accepted even today 150 years later (which is a pretty darn long time in science). One thi I figured while I was on my evolution book kick, I might as well go back to the original (well sort of the original, Alfred Russel Wallace published a paper on natural selection which prompted Darwin to publish this “abstract”). Now that I'm finished I feel two different ways about the book, a loved yet bored type of feeling. First I'm amazed at just how much of Darwin's theories and ideas are accurate and accepted even today 150 years later (which is a pretty darn long time in science). One thing you have to appreciate about this book is that its pretty evident that Darwin didn't just rush out and publish this theories but thought about every possible question everyone could have and he attempts to answer them all. Another question he spends a lot of time on is how flora could make it to islands, he goes through page after page of experiments trying to see how long seeds can stay in salt water and still germinate. Even better way back 150 years ago Darwin already anticipated the irreducible complexity argument of the eye and proposed his own ideas about how the eye could evolve and how each gradation is useful in itself. Some times the prose was pretty amazing, I think the famous line about “There is grandeur in this view of life.....” is one of my favorites in any book I've read.

So as amazing as some parts where why then did I rate it 3 stars? Well for every amazing part there are page after page of material which is (to me) just plain boring. The prose which is great in sections is pretty tedious in other parts. The fact that he thought of every question means that he goes over proof after proof. Remember the salt water and the seeds mentioned above, well its cool at first but 40 pages of his experiments makes me start to care less and less. There were also a few parts which he got wrong, he spends a whole section trying to figure out why certain animals can't cross breed, something which is quickly addressed now days with DNA. I think at another part he denies that there ever were any mass extinctions (something we know happened several times in the earth's history). Another thing which made the book a little harder for me is Darwin mentions lots of people and animals I've never heard of, of course a better reader would have spend time looking them up but I just read on, I guess I didn't care enough to do that much research for the book.

So overall for importance I'd rate this book a 5/5, but I have to factor in enjoyment and I so its gets the lower score. Truthfully this book is 150 years old and written in Victorian English, its very important, but there are better books on evolution out there, so if you're curious about the fascinating world of evolution, start elsewhere, only if you're curious about how the theory got started pick this one up. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Apr 11, 2020 Masha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science, non-fiction, classics

FANTASTIC!!!! it's incredible how well formed the theory is, and how well explained it is, especially given the state of the science at the time ...more

3 likes · Like · see review