The Development of Darwin's Theory: Natural History, Natural Theology, and Natural Selection,1838-1859
Dov Ospovat's book, originally published in 1981, has become generally accepted as one of the most influential books about Darwin published in recent years. Ospovat examines the period of 1838-1859, two decades preceding the publication of On the Origin of Species, in detail and shows that Darwin's views changed quite radically from initially believing that animals and plants were perfectly adapted to their environments, and that evolution only occurred when the environment changed, to...
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In this highly acclaimed book, Ospovat shows that Darwin's views changed radically from his first formulation of evolution to the publication of the full theory in 1859.
List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; Note on manuscript citations; Introduction: Darwin and his fellow naturalists; 1. Darwin and the biology of the 1830s: some parallels; 2. Darwin before Malthus; 3. Natural selection and perfect adaptation, 1838-1844; 4. Part II of Darwin's work on species; 5. Natural history after Cuvier: the branching conception of nature; 6. Darwin and the branching conception; 7. Classification and the 'principle of divergence'; 8. The principle of divergence and the transformation of Darwin's theory; 9. Natural selection and 'natural improvement'; Conclusion: the development of Darwin's theory as a social progress; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
