Charles Darwin

Darwinism is a term for the underlying concepts in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of Discussions of Darwinism usually focus on evolution by natural selection, but sometimes Darwinism is taken to mean evolution more broadly, or other ideas not directly associated with the work of Darwin.

Classical Darwinism

In the 19th century context in which Darwin's On the Origin of Species was first received, "Darwinism" came to stand for an entire range of evolutionary (and often revolutionary) philosophies about both biology and society. Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (published 24 November 1859) is a seminal work in Scientific literature and arguably the One of the more prominent approaches was that summed in the phrase "survival of the fittest" by the philosopher Herbert Spencer, which was later taken to be emblematic of Darwinism even though Spencer's own understanding of evolution was more Lamarckian than Darwinian, and predated the publication of Darwin's theory. "Survival of the fittest" is a Phrase which is shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance Herbert Spencer ( April 27, 1820 – December 8, 1903) was an English Philosopher; prominent classical liberal Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Chevalier de Lamarck ( August 1, 1744 &ndash December 18, 1829) was a French Soldier The publication of Darwin's theory brought into the open Charles Darwin 's ideas of Evolution through Natural selection, the culmination of more than twenty What is now called "Social Darwinism" was, in its day, synonymous with "Darwinism" — the application of Darwinian principles of "struggle" to society, usually in support of anti-philanthropic political agendas. Social Darwinism is a theory that competition among all individuals groups nations or ideas drives Social evolution in human societies Philanthropy is the act of donating money goods services time and/or effort to support a socially beneficial cause with a defined objective and with no financial or material Another interpretation, one notably favoured by Darwin's half-cousin Francis Galton, was that Darwinism implied that because natural selection was apparently no longer working on "civilized" people it was possible for "inferior" strains of people (who would normally be filtered out of the gene pool) to overwhelm the "superior" strains, and voluntary corrective measures would be desirable — the foundation of eugenics. Sir Francis Galton FRS ( 16 February 1822 &ndash 17 January 1911) half-cousin of Charles Darwin, was an Eugenics is a social Philosophy which advocates the improvement of Human Hereditary traits through various forms of intervention

In Darwin's day there was no rigid definition of the term "Darwinism", and it was used by opponents and proponents of Darwin's biological theory alike to mean whatever they wanted it to in a larger context. The ideas had international influence, and Ernst Haeckel developed what was known as Darwinismus in Germany, although, like Spencer Haeckel's "Darwinism" had only a rough resemblance to the theory of Charles Darwin, and was not centered around natural selection at all. Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel ( February 16, 1834 — August 9, 1919)also written von Haeckel, was an eminent German Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe.

While the reaction against Darwin's ideas is nowadays often thought to have been widespread immediately, in 1886 Wallace went on a lecture tour across the United States, starting in New York and going via Boston, Washington, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska to California, lecturing on what he called Darwinism without any problems. Alfred Russel Wallace OM, FRS (8 January 1823 &ndash 7 November 1913 was an British naturalist, Explorer, Geographer ^[1]

Other uses

The term Darwinism is often used in the United States by promoters of creationism, notably by leading members of the intelligent design movement ^[2] to describe evolution. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the "Creationism" can also refer to Creation myths in general or to a concept about the origin of the soul. See also Intelligent design The intelligent design movement is a Neo-creationist religious campaign that calls for broad social academic and political eVolution is the third Album by eLDee, it was due to be released in 2008 In this usage, the term has connotations of atheism. Atheism For example, in Charles Hodge's book What Is Darwinism?, Hodge answers the question posed in the book's title by concluding: "It is Atheism. Charles Hodge (1797 – 1878 was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878 "^[3][4][5] Creationists use the term Darwinism, often pejoratively, to imply that the theory has been held as true only by Darwin and a core group of his followers, whom they cast as dogmatic and inflexible in their belief. Dogma (the plural is either dogmata or dogmas, Greek, plural) is the established Belief or Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a Proposition or Premise to be true ^[6] Casting evolution as a doctrine or belief bolsters religiously motivated political arguments to mandate equal time for the teaching of creationism in public schools. Teach the Controversy is the name of a Discovery Institute intelligent design campaign to promote Intelligent design, a variant of traditional Creationism

However, Darwinism is also used neutrally within the scientific community to distinguish modern evolutionary theories from those first proposed by Darwin, as well as by historians to differentiate it from other evolutionary theories from around the same period. For example, Darwinism may be used to refer to Darwin's proposed mechanism of natural selection, in comparison to more recent mechanisms such as genetic drift and gene flow. Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of In Population genetics, genetic drift is the accumulation of random events that change the makeup of a gene pool slightly but often compound over time In Population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of Alleles of Genes from one Population to another It may also refer specifically to the role of Charles Darwin as opposed to others in the history of evolutionary thought — particularly contrasting Darwin's results with those of earlier theories such as Lamarckism or later ones such as the modern synthesis. Evolutionary thought, the idea that species change over time has roots in antiquity in the ideas of the Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Muslims Lamarckism (or Lamarckian evolution) is the once widely accepted idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring (also

A notable example of a scientist who uses the term in a positive sense is Richard Dawkins. Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL (born 26 March 1941 is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and Popular science ^[7]

See also

• Modern evolutionary synthesis
• Neo-Darwinism
• Neural Darwinism
• Social Darwinism
• Darwin Awards

References

External links

• Universal Darwinism
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry
• What is Darwinism