Darwin's Works

sweeeet!

Great site! Thanks.

From The Descent of Man:

It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Another one:

'It may be said that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, every variation, even the slightest; rejecting that which is bad, preserving and adding up all that is good; silently and insensibly working'

I saw the Darwin Exhibit at the Natural History Museum (NYC) this summer, and saw some of his written diary entries. A early diagram of the "tree of life" (vs a ladder with man on top, which was the common view of things back then) was pretty cool.

I don't know if the collected works web site will include it or not, but I also saw his "pros and cons" list that he made to help decide whether he should marry Emma Wedgwood. (He did. The final tally: 9 pro vs 5 con. jk)

He likely cared for his wife more than his work, at the end of his book "On the Origin of the Species" the first edition he writes

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one;"

in edition 2 through the last (6) he changed it to read

"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one;"

Apparently, he did this mostly to appease his very religious wife and her family (of Wedgwood pottery fame) and also to soften the blow to the general public, knowing the uproar it (the book) would cause.

While Charles Darwin had contemplated a career in the clergy earlier in his life, he died a thoroughly anti-religious man.

I cannot agree with many of his conclusions, but I greatly appreciate his observations. It is very good to have access to them. Like Nobel, his objective work has been perverted and used as a wedge to move social policy. Perhaps there should be an award in his name... There is. http://www.darwinawards.com/ funny stuff.

His conclusions have proved to be remarkably reliable, considering the relative lack of evidence he had at his disposal. But, now - thanks to 150 years of progress in paleontology, biology and genetics, we know just how right he was.

I thought social darwinism died in 1945.

I hope you're not talking about dynamite, although it has certainly been used to "move social policy." The Nobel prizes aren't really one of his works, he just left the money for them in his will because he felt badly about making things that killed people.

Also, I hate that terrible man-hating harpy that gives out the darwin awards.