Originally posted by humy
Actually, Darwin was the first to work out both evolution and the mechanism for evolution and he did that before Alfred Russel Wallace.
Darwin was initially to afraid to publish his discovery because he feared hostile reaction from Christians. But, much later on, he then heard of the work Wallace was doing and, fearing that Wallace would steal all the credi ...[text shortened]... gence while Wallace didn't.
See http://darwin200.christs.cam.ac.uk/pages/index.php?page_id=d8
Yeah, that's not entirely accurate, I'm afraid.
The thought that life could have evolved from earlier forms go as far back as Ionaian philosopher Anaximander (who suggested that land-living animals must have originated in the sea). Erasmus Darwin (Charles' grandfather) also was a proponent of the idea that life began in the sea and later evolved. Then we have Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, who proposed a more complete theory of evolution (incorrect but interesting to read - he thought for instance that if an organism began to use an organ previously unused, it would begin to refine itself to better fit its usage - it's a fun read). In fact, there were many thinkers before Charles Darwin who believed that life evolves.
What changed everything though, was the idea of natural selection. You'll find that Wallace's theory was virtually identical to Darwin's. This is the reason they presented this idea together before the Linnean society. But even Wallace gave Darwin the credit (Wallace was the one who called the theory Darwinism), and the reason he would do that, is probably because he found out that Darwin had the idea as early as the 1830's, and had an almost completed book on the theory, demonstrating how vigurously he'd worked on it. It's often said that Darwin found out about Wallace's theory when a member of the Linnean society decided to show it to Darwin, but the truth is that Wallace actually sent his paper to Darwin for opinions. They were friends. They weren't afraid of having their works stolen from each other. They really did develop this idea of natural selection independently of each other.
Another interesting note is that Wallace always believed evolution was a fact, right from the start, whereas Darwin initially was a big fan of Paley (the guy who came up with the watchmaker argument). He only lost his belief in a purposeful creation after the idea of natural selection began to gain weight in the evidence he collected (partially with the help of Wallace).
Oh, and I just learned that Wallace and Darwin had this idea of natural selection at approximately the same time, reading the "Essay on the Principle of Population" by political economist Thomas Maltus. Fascinating. Everytime I read about this, I pick up something new; something I've missed before.
🙂
Darwin's Contribution
21 Jan '15 08:152 edits
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