Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 The Origin of the Origin
- 2 Darwin’s Analogy between Artificial and Natural Selection in the Origin of Species
- 3 Variation and Inheritance
- 4 Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Its Moral Purpose
- 5 Originating Species: Darwin on the Species Problem
- 6 Darwin’s Keystone: The Principle of Divergence
- 7 Darwin’s Difficulties
- 8 Darwin’s Geology and Perspective on the Fossil Record
- 9 Geographical Distribution in the Origin of Species
- 10 Classification in Darwin’s Origin
- 11 Embryology and Morphology
- 12 Darwin’s Botany in the Origin of Species
- 13 The Rhetoric of the Origin of Species
- 14 “Laws impressed on matter by the Creator”? The Origin and the Question of Religion
- 15 Lineal Descendants: The Origin’s Literary Progeny
- 16 The Origin and Political Thought: From Liberalism to Marxism
- 17 The Origin and Philosophy
- 18 The Origin of Species as a Book
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Originating Species: Darwin on the Species Problem
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 January 2009
- Frontmatter
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 The Origin of the Origin
- 2 Darwin’s Analogy between Artificial and Natural Selection in the Origin of Species
- 3 Variation and Inheritance
- 4 Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Its Moral Purpose
- 5 Originating Species: Darwin on the Species Problem
- 6 Darwin’s Keystone: The Principle of Divergence
- 7 Darwin’s Difficulties
- 8 Darwin’s Geology and Perspective on the Fossil Record
- 9 Geographical Distribution in the Origin of Species
- 10 Classification in Darwin’s Origin
- 11 Embryology and Morphology
- 12 Darwin’s Botany in the Origin of Species
- 13 The Rhetoric of the Origin of Species
- 14 “Laws impressed on matter by the Creator”? The Origin and the Question of Religion
- 15 Lineal Descendants: The Origin’s Literary Progeny
- 16 The Origin and Political Thought: From Liberalism to Marxism
- 17 The Origin and Philosophy
- 18 The Origin of Species as a Book
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Darwin’s revolutionary arguments for the transformation of species emerged against the backdrop of a century-long transnational debate over the nature of organic species. The aim of this chapter is to clarify this context and relate it to Darwin’s Origin.
Following a brief summary of the “species problem” in the period before 1850, I analyze some key aspects of Darwin’s species concept in the so-called Big Species Book (1856-58) (Species Book) that directly underlies the published Origin. This will be followed by a discussion of Darwin’s public presentation in the Origin, followed by some brief remarks on the divergent interpretations by Darwin’s successors.
THE SPECIES QUESTION BEFORE 1850
Available literature on the history of the species concept (Bachmann 1906; Uhlmann 1923; Stamos 2003 and references therein) only partially clarifies the nature of the debate over organic species in the period before the Origin. Anglophone discussions typically take as their reference framework British, or to a lesser degree French, natural history, assumed to be the main relevant background against which to assess Darwin’s own reflections.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to the 'Origin of Species' , pp. 67 - 86Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
- 4
- Cited by