Chapter 30, Darwin Summary

Hilde sleeps and dreams about the book and philosophy, then gets up and starts reading again. After another interruption from Hilde's father, Alberto talks about Charles Darwin. Alberto tells Sophie that Marx and other thinkers of the time, link their work to that of Charles Darwin. These so-called naturalists are all heavily materialist, using self-certainty for their conclusions. Charles Darwin starts as a practical naturalist, studying animals and birds. As a boy, Charles Darwin collects beetles. He loves bird-watching and later in college, is known as a natural scientist. After graduation, he applies geology to the study of rock formations and looks for fossils. Then Darwin is invited to serve as a natural scientist on a ship going to survey the coasts of South America. The ship, the HMS Beagle spends five years sailing all over the world, including to the...