Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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F1574a Pamphlet: de Beer, Gavin ed. 1960. Darwin's notebooks on transmutation of species. Part I. First notebook [B] (July 1837-February 1838). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Historical Series 2 (2) (January): 23-73. Text Image PDF

Nora Barlow, London 1958, p. 120. 2 Alfred Russel Wallace, Note on the passages of Malthus's 'Principles of Population' which suggested the idea of natural selection to Darwin and myself. The Darwin and Wallace Celebration held on Thursday, I July 1908 by the Linnean Society of London, London 1908, 111-118; especially p. 117. 3 Darwin's Sketch of 1842, and Essay of 1844 are reprinted in Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution by Natural Selection with a Foreword by Sir Gavin de Beer

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

created a theory which renders intelligible, through the tortuous path of evolution, the fact that in both humans and dogs sexual desire makes saliva to flow. (N 41) Natural selection in man. This is the first passage in the M and N notebooks in which the principle of evolution through natural selection is clearly stated and applied to man. Darwin sees it as one of two principles which can account for evolutionary change, the other principle being the direct inheritance of acquired characteristics

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

. The subject of deviation from a species norm was important to Darwin. When he first began his theoretical work, he treated variations as potential evidence for the occurrence of evolution. But after he developed the theory of evolution through natural selection, variation as a common event in nature was a necessary assumption in a causal system. Just why should Darwin at this point have been struck by the notion that deviations of omission, such as he thought sexual con [page] 380 DARWIN ON MA

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F2540 Periodical contribution: Darwin, C. R. 1968. [15 letters, 1838-80]. In G. de Beer ed., The Darwin letters at Shrewsbury School. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 23 (1) (June): 68-85. Text Image PDF

Weismann August Weismann (1834-1914) was a biologist of Darwin's own stature. His work on the continuity of the germ-plasm, his identification of chromosomes as bearers of hereditary factors, his recognition of regeneration as an adaptive phenomenon, and his search for the origin of evolutionary novelties in germinal variation, together with his acceptance of evolution, natural selection, and sexual selection, made him an ideal correspondent for Darwin. [page] 8

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

its formative period. For Darwin's early thoughts about evolution, his notebooks served as the private place in which he could try out new ideas without fear of premature exposure to the fires of criticism. In July 1838 Darwin had finished the first two transmutation notebooks. They included many notes on man, mind, and materialism. He began the third transmutation notebook at the same time as the notebook, with the intention of separating these two lines of thought more clearly. But the

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

of our evil passions!! The Devil under form of Baboon is our grandfather! [M 123] pp. 117 126 Passion. Thoughts on the nature of happiness are interwoven with thoughts of evil passion, such as revenge and anger.* Animals of lesser intelligence than man may have needed such motives for preservation of their kind, but man can afford to check them. Here Darwin is talking about the evolution of human ethics, and he finds it just as natural as evolution itself that ethics continue to evolve under

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

behavior is inversely proportional to the role of intelligent thought. One can see that this point will create trouble for Darwin. It means that hereditary habit, his prime law of the evolution of mind, must itself evolve; it can do much work only when the power of habit is strong. When that power gives way to increasing intelligence, the evolution of mind must take another path. Darwin sees some such problem, for he says, lamely, that we cannot explain the faculty of reason as the outgrowth of habit

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

M Notebook, p. 74. Courtesy of Cambridge University Library. tive parental behavior in the evolution of morality. He uses the example of the earwig in both the earlier and the later comments on blind storge, i.e. instinctive parental affection for the young. (Descent, 106) The above views would make a man a predestinarian of a new kind, because he would tend to be an atheist. Man thus believing, would more earnestly pray . . . would be most humble . . . would strive to improve. . . . [M 74] pp

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

took up pigeon-fancying, his object was to come as close as he could to the experimental study of evolution, by breeding experiments. Along with his theoretical work, Darwin did an enormous amount of experimental work in many fields of science. In these notebooks we see that he had a number of ideas for psychological experimentation. Someday perhaps we will discover a notebook or a bundle of papers in which he wrote down the results. * He probably meant mental retardates. In fact, the ability

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

circumstantial, is (1) the paper has an 1838 watermark, (2) Malthus' postulates are alluded to (Darwin had read Malthus beginning September 28, 1838), and (3) he cites Macculloch throughout the essay, and he also cited Macculloch in the N notebook (p. 35) in a passage written between October 30 and November 20. The latter citation was almost certainly made after he had scanned Macculloch's book. In his Autobiography Darwin said he had determined, after having grasped the idea of evolution through natural

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

whatever takes place in brain, when sensation is perceived. [M 61 62] pp. 58 62 Darwin's attention seems to play almost rhythmically, first on one subject, then on another, returning to previously considered topics in the new light of intervening thoughts. These pages represent a kind of review with a few quick new insights. In two sentences he makes it fairly clear that his earlier remarks on the continuity between music and poetry do have a bearing on the evolution of language: It is known that

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

relativism. In his view, all men have some moral sense, although the particulars may vary from one group to another. Most important of all, the evolution of conscience is a natural consequence of man's being a social animal. Conscience is not something infused in man by a higher being. Morality evolves because it has survival value. He turns his attention to an article on consciousness. He is intrigued with the non-rational insanity, drunkenness, unconscious processes, double consciousness

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

about problems of evolution. Among the intrusions into his geological train of thought is the remark, The union of two instincts crossing most remarkable ?ever observed? shows that brain makes thought . . . Lyell, Principles, 1835, op. cit., Vol. 2, p. 465. [page] 325 The Notebooks on Man, Mind and Materialis

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

N Notebook Commentary by Howard E. Gruber Experience shows the problem of the mind cannot be solved by attacking the citadel itself. the mind is function of body. [N 5] . 1 5 Moment of truth. The N notebook is simply a continuation of the M notebook, and yet it comes at a significant moment in Darwin's thought. On September 28, 1838 as recorded in the D notebook, provoked by a suggestive passage in Malthus' Essay on Population, Darwin had his first clear insight into the principle of evolution

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

, and with the improved brain and vocal organs resulting from evolution up to that point, further associations of sounds and things can develop. The same ideas appear later in the Descent of Man in various passages on language, music, and speech. The remark on prayer seems to suggest that, although religious feelings are very remote from the simplest thoughts, a prayer may be thought of as an eloquent request and the ability to make such a request emerges from a growing power to think about absent

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

bodily structure . . . to obtain a certain end; intellect is a modification of instinct an unfolding generalizing of the means by which an instinct is transmitted. (N 48) In the next paragraph he feels a need for some philosophical justification of his method of reasoning. The thought is compressed but he seems to be saying that it is legitimate in science to look at extreme cases, in which the effect we want to study is magnified thus, to understand the evolution of mind in lower ani [page] 372

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

Darwin's first clear and great insight into the idea of evolution through natural selection, over two months since he stated his theory logically and succinctly as three principles, and also two months since he applied the theory explicitly to man. Nevertheless, he has not abandoned his earlier position that the inheritance of acquired characteristics can account for a large part of evolutionary change. The present passage re-states an idea now familiar to us habits acquired during the lifetime of

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

primarily instinctual, and in man primarily intellectual. The point is repeated on page 115 the evolution of the bee's instinct and man's intellect are equally wonderful. Instincts and learning. Typically, having for a moment made the distinction firm between instinct and reason, Darwin tries again to find the continuity between them. It will be helpful if instincts are amenable to some learned change. Darwin cites several examples fear and flight reactions diminishing in birds and rabbits as they

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F2540 Periodical contribution: Darwin, C. R. 1968. [15 letters, 1838-80]. In G. de Beer ed., The Darwin letters at Shrewsbury School. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 23 (1) (June): 68-85. Text Image PDF

time, and on what subjects? The only one that can be identified straightaway, and which Darwin himself always regretted, was mathematics. It would be interesting to know how Darwin would have explained to himself the most curious fact in his intellectual evolution; how he became a scientist. When he sailed in the Beagle he was a rather ordinary well-to-do young man, with great courage and much horse-sense, no academic qualifications whatever, a love of riding and shooting, a great interest in

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F1582 Book contribution: Barrett, P. H. 1974. Early writings of Charles Darwin. In Gruber, H. E., Darwin on man. A psychological study of scientific creativity; together with Darwin's early and unpublished notebooks. Transcribed and annotated by Paul H. Barrett, commentary by Howard E. Gruber. Foreword by Jean Piaget. London: Wildwood House. [Notebooks M, N, Old and useless notes, Essay on theology and natural selection, Questions for Mr. Wynn, Extracts from B-C-D-E transmutation notebooks, A Biographical Sketch of Charles Darwin's Father, Plinian Society Minutes Book] Text

ought to set it alongside the argument in the Descent of Man, written over thirty years later linking the courtship sounds of lower animals, the emergence of music in man out of these primitive tones and rhythms, and the evolution of language and poetry out of these sexual beginnings. One ought not to read the whole of Darwin's later argument into this one paragraph; it may be enough to say that he is here sensitive to yet one more of nature's continuities. In the next few paragraphs, castles