Download notes-2012-09-24

9/24 Darwin
Voyage of the Beagle (1839)
 Travel narrative
 Imperialism (1263, 1264)
o Create a favorable corner for England (1269)
 The Fuegian Savages and Jemmy (1262-69)
o Bought as slave in order to “civilize” (1265)
o The results (1268)
 Race – savages admire whitneness (1266)
 Suggests natural selection of humans (1267)
Galapagos Archipelago (1839) (1269-72)
 Alien land (1269)
 Tortoise rides (1271)
 Origin of Species
o Mystery of origins (1270)
o Key observation of Galapagos (geology/meteorology) (1271-72)
o Animals not afraid of humans (1272)
Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) (1272-77)
 Speciation, struggle for life, natural vs. artificial selection (1273)
 Romanticism? Victorian vision of nature (1273)
 Population growth (Modernity) (1274)
 Racial component
The Descent of Man (1871)
 Vs. Edenic origin narrative (1277-78)
 Man descended from monkeys (1278)
 Man is an animal, but with a difference (1278-79)
 Belief in God (1279-80)
 Sexual Selection vs. Natural Selection (1280)
o Eugenics (1282)
o Social Darwinism / Victorian Social Criticism – points in common with
Arnold, Mayhew, Engels? (1282)
 Pride in descent from savages? (1283)
 Triumph of scientific method (1283)
Ending of Autobiography (1887):
 Bible as unbelievable (1287-88)
 Hellenism (1288)
 Vs. Intelligent Design (1288)
 Universe in decay / Entropy (1289)
 Agnosticism (1289)