David Kruger
Week Three
“The major obstacle of the idea of evolution, however, was not stupidity; rather it was the traditional assumption of man’s uniqueness and divine origin.” (Natures economy pg. 182)
Darwin’s conclusions in the Origin of Species were fresh and flexible. Darwin seemed to have a unique perspective growing up; in his later years he said this perspective was due to “reading and re-reading” Lyell and Humboldt as a child. When Darwin grew up his ideas began to change.
Unlike Humboldt, Darwin was not looking for “harmony” in nature. Darwin saw a chaotic and violent ecosystem that science had left unexplained. Humboldt did impress upon Darwin an ideal which Darwin would in later years use to craft his thesis on evolution. Humboldt’s idea was that all of nature is interrelated. This was the “Bedrock” that eventually became essential in Darwin’s writings on the Origin of Species.
Lyell gave unto Darwin the idea that nature is in a constant flux. That “God will go on making and remaking nature for all of time” (pg 138). This is where Darwin realized that “no one species can hold a particular place in the economy of nature forever.” (pg. 157) Darwin learned about the vicious tendencies of nature, and most importantly that violence leads to change.
The oddity presented by the Galapagos reinforced the idea of violence in nature for Darwin. It burrowed holes in the theory that a benevolent God would have created nature. When Darwin got back from the Galapagos the ideas he held in past years were not as solid as they once had been. However he did not release his ideas until his theory was satisfactory in his mind. In my opinion the most influential study Darwin undertook was his study of human economies (especially London’s). He observed competitions effect on living things. It was only when he brought humans into an ecological view point that he was able to cross reference their plight with the plight of animals. If Darwin were to have viewed humans as demigods above animals surely he would have never came up with “The Origin of Species.”