Darwin and Darwinism

On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man

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Biology until Darwin

Before Darwin studies the most important theory about the origin of all living creatures was Creationism There were also two different positions between the intellectuals about the number of creations that had happened: just one or more than one with an equal number of apocalypses (catastrophism)
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The origins of Creationism

Aristotle was the rst to classify all the living beings in III century b.C. His theories were accepted by the Church, that also stated that all the species were created by God in the same moment The Archbishop Ussher xed that the creation happened at 9:00 A.M. on October 23, 4004 B.C
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Linneo, Buffon, Cuvier

Charles Von Linn, despite the fact that he was a creationist, organized the species using a dichotomic method, and gave to every species a two-words name in Latin Buffon was the rst to suppose an evolution starting from original species created by God Cuvier believed in Catastrophism, a lot of species created by God had become extinct due to natural phenomena
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Lamarck

Was the rst to think about evolution In his theory, the living beings can modify their bodies and transmit these modications to their offspring

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Charles Darwin
Theory of evolution by Natural Selection Each species produces an offspring superior in number to the parents, but despite of that, the population remains stable through the time, so in every generation there must be a large number of individuals which die without reproducing These individuals are eliminated by natural selection because they arent adapted to their habitat
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Inheritance

The differencies between individuals are caused by casual genetic mutations, which can be transmitted to the offspring. If a mutation is useful for the survival, the mutant will have a greater probability to generate an offspring, which will inherit the mutation.

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Social Darwinism
Darwins theories inspired also the philosophers of his age. One of the most important authors was Herbert Spencer He argued that economic competition was the same as natural selection, and that the poor and oppressed did not deserve compassion

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Influences of Social Darwinism

One of the most important rival of Spencer is Thomas Huxley who claimed that the humans morality cant be explained with evolution. Emile Gautier has an utopic view of evolution, he thinks that modern civilization will eliminate antagonism between men.

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