Alfred Russel Wallace had the largest influence, in my opinion, on
Darwin’s theory of natural selection. He provided positive support, for an
otherwise unsure Darwin, for his theory through his paper ‘On the Tendency of
Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type,’ reinforcing Darwin’s
already existing idea that all animals evolved through competition and survival
of the fittest.
Wallace traveled extensively in his lifetime in Asia and South
America. He simultaneously developed the same evolution ideas as Darwin, but independently.
They corresponded and shared their ideas. Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker then
arranged for their theories to be presented at the Linnaean Society in 1858.
Now maybe facing a credit dispute for his ideas, Darwin pushed to have his book
he had been working on for 20 years published, ‘On the Origin of Species.’
Wallace continued to work in biogeography. http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14
Wallace had nearly the exact same ideas as Darwin. He contributed most
to the point that ‘if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or
adaptive to that environment will be different.’ Although heredity was unknown
until the 20th century, Wallace and Darwin still accepted this
notion due to variations in species, even though they didn’t know what those
variations were. Again, after Darwin found out Wallace had this same idea - it
furthered him to publish ‘On the Origin of Species.’
So, since Wallace and Darwin brought about their ideas separate from
each other without ever corresponding, it could have been very possible that
Darwin would have published his book anyway, although maybe it would have taken
longer for someone to persuade him to.
Public opinion on the book was negative. However scholars praised, and
scientists gradually took hold of it. Darwin lived in a time where the Bible
should be read literally and any religious doubt was sinful. So he made sure he
would denounce any objections before publishing, which again, took 20 years.
Good background information and analysis. I agree that Darwin would likely have published eventually, but he had already waited over 20 years and who knows how much longer he would have waited.
ReplyDeleteThe response to Darwin's work was predictable, but perhaps the most damaging influence on the church was the fear it inspired in Darwin to publish his work to begin with. He was terrified of how the work would be received and to what the social impact of the book would be on his family, particularly on his wife, who was very religious.
Overall, well done.