Darwinism is the concept of organic evolution, from a common ancestor, by means of natural selection. The theory was popularized by its namesake, English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882). Darwin's theory first appeared in his book, On the Origin of Species in 1859. Later, Darwin expanded his evolutionary model to include humans. He discussed the scientific importance of man's antiquity in his other major work, The Descent of Man.
Darwin was not the first scientist to propose a theory of evolution. Even Darwin's own grandfather, English physician and naturalist Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), gained fame for this theories of organic development. Relying on much of the pioneering work of his contemporaries in the fields of geology and biology, and upon his own observations of animal populations he made while circumnavigation the globe as ship's naturalist aboard the H.M.S. BeagleDarwin set forth to explain the inter-linking of all organic life and the processes by which new species were created.
Darwinism holds that evolution is the product of an ongoing struggle of species to better adapt to their environment. Individual specimen that best adapted survived to reproduce and replace less-suited individuals. This phenomenon was dubbed "survival of the fittest", or natural selection. In this way, Darwin believed that traits of maximum adaptiveness were transferred to future generations of the animal population. Since Darwin's theory preceded the discovery of the modes of genetic heredity, Darwin erroneously ascribed the passing down of traits as a function of the blood. He hypothesized that infinitesimal transmutations untimely resulted in larger changes, and eventually speciation. Darwin further concluded that unexpressed traits and variants could be diluted out of a population.
One of the initial criticisms of Darwinism was its inability to explain why species remained static. Transmutation, as Darwin explained it, could have resulted in seemingly infinite varieties of organisms. In later works, Darwin further addressed these questions of variation by attributing the conservation of specific characteristics within a species population to selected breeding.
When writing about his observations, Darwin often described the natural world in terms of reminiscent of the society to which he was accustomed. Some historians believe that this use of familiar terminology and cultural patterns left Darwin's theories vulnerable to the numerous layman re-interpretations to which the more philosophical aspects of the theory became subject. Darwin's ideas about members of natural species populations embattled in an ongoing struggle for existence, and the triumph of the "survival of the fittest", was later applied to social theory. So-called Social Darwinism was used to justify the dominion of some men over others, and was the philosophical backbone of modern imperialism. Darwin resented appropriation of his works by social theorists, and considered it a misinterpretation of his scientific theory.
Darwinism became widely popular among most contemporary scientists. The discovery, however, of genetic laws of heredity called into question Darwin's interpretation of natural selection. Darwinism briefly fell out of favor in the late 1800s before enjoying renewed acceptance after being revised to explain its evolutionary mechanisms in genetic terms. This modern synthesis became known as Neo-Darwinism.
This is the complete article, containing 502 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
