Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät an der

Katholischen Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt

Charles Darwin′s The Origin of Species:

Science, Rhetoric and Revolution

Schriftliche Arbeit im Rahmen des Hauptseminars

,,Literature and Biology"

im Wintersemester 2007/2008

Eingereicht von:

Claudia Irion

Abgabedatum: 07. Januar 2008

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Contents

II

CONTENTS

Introduction _____________________________________________________________ 1

I

Historical Background ________________________________________________ 2

I.1

Survey of evolutionary thought up to 1859___________________________________ 2

I.1.1

Biblical Creationism _________________________________________________________ 3

I.1.2

The first transmutationists: Erasmus Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ________________ 4

I.2

The development of Darwin′s theory _______________________________________ 5

I.2.2

The arguments of the theory ___________________________________________________ 6

I.2.2

Darwin′s style and scientific method ____________________________________________ 8

II

Darwin′s On the origin of Species: A rhetorical text ________________________ 9

II.1

Rhetorical figures ____________________________________________________ 10

II.1.1 Simile and metaphor________________________________________________________ 10

II.1.2 Personifications ____________________________________________________________ 12

II.2

After the publication __________________________________________________ 13

II.2.1 The reception of Darwin′s theory ______________________________________________ 13

II.2.2 Social uses and abuses of Darwinian thought _____________________________________ 14

Conclusion _____________________________________________________________ 15

Bibliography___________________________________________________________ III

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Charles Darwin′s

The Origin of Species:

Science, Rhetoric and Revolution

1

INTRODUCTION

Only now can we appreciate in how many different ways the

Origin

departed from established

concepts and how many new directions it opened up. Every modern discussion of man′s future, the

population explosion, the struggle for existence, the purpose of man and the universe, and man′s place in

nature rests on Darwin.

1

With these words Ernst Mayr opens his introduction to the facsimile of the first edition

of Darwin′s

The Origin of Species

2

and thus outlines the dimensions of its significance and

place in cultural history. The difference, which separates the book and its author from many

other scientific works of similar importance, is the degree to which it has been brought up in

public debates. Additionally, it was noticed that Darwin′s success had also something to do

with his talent as a writer: he made us see the world in a different light with figures of speech.

But to claim that Darwin was a rhetorician is not to dismiss his science, but to draw attention

to his accommodation of his message to the professional and lay audiences whose support

was necessary for its acceptance. While the debate in natural sciences was largely over by the

end of the 1940s, the cultural debate came up again. Catchwords like

Social

or

Cultural

Darwinism

indicate the transfer of the biological theory to other spheres. Nowadays, most of

the main religions have accepted the theory of evolution and promote a co-existence of

scientific description and religious traditions.

3

In the course of this essay, I will first attempt to shed light on the historical

background, beginning with a short survey of evolutionary thought up to the publication of

the

Origin

(I.1). In addition, I will have a closer look at Darwin and his work itself (I.2). In

chapter two, Darwin is presented as a rhetorician and attention is drawn to the most amazing

rhetorical figures he uses in his work (II.1). My aim is not to provide a comprehensive study,

a task that is beyond the scope of this essay, and therefore certain aspects can not be dealt

with and others will only be touched upon. In the end, the last part of this essay will be an

attempt to introduce the reader to the reception of Darwin′s theory (II.2). Certainly, this can

only be a broad overview, focusing on major subjects as religion, science and the way in

which Darwin′s work was used to justify political and social concepts (II.2.2).

1

Mayr, Ernst (1975).

On the Origin of Species. A Facsimile of the First Edition.

Cambridge: Harvard

University Press, p. vii.

2

Full title: Charles Darwin.

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation
of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

London: J. Murray, 1859. Subsequent references in this essay

will be taken from the following edition: T. Griffith (ed.).

The Origin of Species.

Hertfordshire:

Wordsworth Classics, 1998. Quotations will refer to the text of the 1st edition.

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Charles Darwin′s

The Origin of Species:

Science, Rhetoric and Revolution

2

I HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The origin of species had been the subject of extensive scientific discussions for quite

some time when Darwin published his book. Three major discoveries had activated the

debate: First, the discovery by geologists that the world was much older than had so far been

assumed on the basis of biblical evidence.

4

Second, the discovery by naturalists that there

where many different species, especially in other continents ­ a discovery which did not fit in

the picture of the species as painted by Carolus Linneaus

5

in the 18th century. Finally, the

discovery by palaeontologists of fossilized plants and animals remain, which seemed to have

belonged to such strange creatures that classification was extremely difficult. Therefore,

scientists of those times were asking themselves questions like: How could evolutionary ideas

be coped with? How could they be reconciled with the story of creation as told in Genesis?

How had living creatures come into existence? The following chapter will be an attempt to

grasp the historical developments and intellectual climate that lead to Darwin′s

Origin.

The

work is deeply embedded in the culture of Victorian England and should be viewed with that

background in mind.

I.1

Survey of evolutionary thought up to 1859

Since the publication everyone has identified evolution with Darwin. Practically

overnight it was forgotten that others too had developed their own models of evolution.

Therefore, it is important to keep in mind that Darwin did not

create

the idea of evolution as it

had been around for a long time. Scientific specialization was still in its infancy and many

scientists where generalists of a sort, often with a religious vocation. Therefore it is often

complicate and rather artificial to seperate scientific and religious ideas. The world view of

unchanging, fixed species can be traced back to ancient Greece and Aristotle, who based his

assumption on human reason and rationality. Christianity had similar ideas about species

connected to the scheme of the

Great Chain of Being

that described a specific place for each

3

Bowler (1990), pp. vii-ix.

4

Bowler (2003), p. 4. James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh has become notorious for estimate that the

creation took place in 4004 B.C.

5

Carolus Linnaeus created the first modern system of biological classification, by building an image of a

divinely ordered universe. He conceded that new species might appear in the course of time, but his chief

explanation of the process was hybridization. He assumed that God had created an array of distinct

species which perpetuated themselves unchanged to the present. His technique was outlined in his work

Systema Naturae (1735)

. See also Bowler (2003), p. 67; Henkin (1968), p. 21.

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Charles Darwin′s

The Origin of Species:

Science, Rhetoric and Revolution

3

individual in the universe. A predecessor of Darwin was the French scientist Jean-Baptiste

Lamarck, who was influenced by Erasmus Darwin, Charles′ grandfather. Trying to

understand the development and presentation of Darwin′s theory without reference to these

earlier debates, shown in the following, can only lead to misunderstanding and

oversimplification.

I.1.1 Biblical

Creationism

The doctrine of evolution came face to face with theology. It replaced fundamental

aspects of the traditional Christian worldview by a new interpretation of nature. In the

orthodox way, the world had been created in six days and contained from that time onwards

all the heavenly bodies, including animals and plants, that it now contains. In the old

worldview,

the pattern of each species is designed by its creator. The so called

argument from

design

, which implied a constant, static and stable world without room for notions of

development and evolution, holds that the perfection of each design and the adaptation of

each species to a particular way of life, confirms the benevolence of God. Earth had been

created at a certain point in history and would basically stay the way it had been intended.

Therefore, Charles Darwin became criticised because many felt that his teachings had

challenged the creation accounts as told in the Old Testament. While modernists accepted the

notion that the Bible was a human document of faith and should not be interpreted literally,

evangelical fundamentalists believed in the dogma of Biblical Literalism. For them the book

of Genesis is to be understood in a literal way:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and

void; and darkness was upon the face of deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the

waters.

6

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion

over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over

every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

7

In this context it becomes clear that many of the principles that Darwin had proposed

were antagonistic to a literal understanding of the Bible. With his work Darwin broke away

from certain ideas and conflicts arose time and again during the years following its

publication.

6

Genesis 1, 1-2.

7

Genesis 1, 26.

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