Source: On the Origin of Species Summary | SuperSummary
On the Origin of Species is a scientific novel by Charles Darwin, evolutionary biologist and the first person to conceive of natural selection as the vehicle through which organisms develop new features and identities through successive generations. Published in 1859 to a widespread and receptive general audience, it explicates now-familiar principles such as variation, mutation, and evolution which were, at the time, new to the scientific world. The novel is lauded for combining rigorous empirical evidence with the scientific method and Darwin’s more abstract revelations about the nature of organisms, fashioning a model that unifies and explains many natural phenomena.
In the book’s introduction, Darwin recounts conceiving of his theory when he traveled as a professional naturalist on a ship called the HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836. On board, he kept a journal of data about his observations, even writing a rough draft of what would be his conclusions before acquiring all of the necessary supporting evidence. After 20 years keeping the findings to himself because he feared a public rejection that could ruin his life, he published them in the form of On the Origin of Species when a colleague named Alfred Russel Wallace sent him a letter about similar findings.
In the book’s first chapters, Darwin explains the skeleton of his theory. In each biological generation of an organism, animals and plants create many more individuals than nature can sustain with the appropriate resources. Though they can be categorized together, these organisms are all unique at some level in their behavior and physical profiles, and are able to pass on their features to successive generations. In each new generation, the individuals who are best equipped to survive their environment gain an advantage, progressively adapting to fit the demands the environment imposes on them. This theory explains, for example, the evolution of men from apes, who evolved by using their developing capacity to form tools and metaphors to defeat other tribes of apes that impinged on their territory or threatened their lives.
After explicating his theory, Darwin discusses the many different obstacles he encountered while trying to publish the book. He notes early on that he intends for it to become a founding text of a new era of biological science, trickling into other fields including religious studies, anthropology, and classics. However, at the time of his revelations, the predominant explanation for the origins of life was a creationist one, which asserted that an omnipotent and infallible god was responsible for the features, arrangement, and variety of all of life. Darwin’s views differ because they necessitate a rejection of the notion of a single divine creator and posit that the traits of individuals matter in the evolutionary process. It also differs by proposing that all organisms share a common ancestor.
Very aware that his evolutionary theory might clash with religious people, Darwin frequently refers and responds to creationist theories in his novel, showing how his evolutionary theory offers better explanations for the phenomena they are addressing. He also discounts all evidence that is non-factual, in contrast to religious biologists who would often incorporate baseless ideology in their findings. Though Darwin remains neutral about whether or not a divine creator exists, he takes care to position his work so that it can be understood by religious people.
In Darwin’s conclusion, he goes so far as to suggest that a creator did indeed exist at the very beginning, breathing “life” into the first organism so that it could propagate and create more complexity over time. In other words, while he postulates that life could have a divine origin, it was later taken over by the “natural” processes of variation, mutation, and natural selection that continue to define how life goes on today.
In Darwin’s conclusion, he goes so far as to suggest that a creator did indeed exist at the very beginning, breathing “life” into the first organism so that it could propagate and create more complexity over time. In other words, while he postulates that life could have a divine origin, it was later taken over by the “natural” processes of variation, mutation, and natural selection that continue to define how life goes on today.
On the Origin of Species was initially very controversial despite Darwin’s attempt to steer clear from directly refuting religious doctrine while promoting his own points. He discusses evolution only in the context of the organisms he observed personally in order to avoid the risk of being considered overly ideological himself. A follow up work called The Descent of Man came 12 years later, in 1971, and explicated the possible evolution of humankind from apelike ancestors. This extension to On the Origin of Species renewed controversy in Darwin’s evolutionary biology model because it relegated humans away from a supreme position in the natural hierarchy to a tiny node on a huge evolutionary tree. Nonetheless, the survival of Darwin’s ideas today in mainstream science stand as testimony to their clarity, originality, and insight.
