Charles
Lyell, a geologist, had the most influence over Darwin’s development of his
theory of Natural selection. I believe this to be true because Lyell passion
was in Geology and believed that the Earth’s surface were produced by physical,
chemical, and biological processes through long periods of geological time. He wrote
a book, “Principles of Geology” which
placed him among the most recognizable leaders of his field. He was also great friends
with Darwin. In 1859 the publication of “Darwin’s
Origins of Species” gave new insight to Lyell’s work and which lead to the
publication of “The Geological Evidence
of the Antiquity of Man.” Lyell accepted evolution by natural selection.
Charles Lyell forever changed the way the earth was viewed in the scientific
community. His studies/ publications contributed to adding powerful arguments
of his own to Darwin’s theory, which he later adopted Darwin’s conclusion. This
was a big deal because of Lyell’s status in the scientific community. It was
Lyell who demonstrated that forces such as wind, water erosion, local flooding,
frost, decomposition of vegetables matter, volcanoes, earthquakes, and glacial
movements had all contributed in the past to produce the geological landscape
that we see today. He found through research that the earth was older than we
thought. The concept of deep time was Lyell’s most significant contribution to
the discovery of evolutionary principles because the immensity of geological
time permitted the time depth for the slow process of evolutionary change. From
the bullet points listed I believe the following help Darwin built upon the
knowledge that this information provided. The points I believe to most directly
affect Lyell’s work are; resources are limited, organisms with better access to
resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts and if the
environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that
environment will be different. I choose these because Lyell demonstrated that
natural forces through geological time change the earth and if the climates are
slowly changing we evolve base on the environments. The strongest will survive
and move on to reproduce. I believe that Darwin could not have developed his
theory of natural selection without the influence and ideas of Charles Lyell
because Lyell influenced Darwin’s work. He was Darwin’s mentor and looked up to
him. He theories help better understand natural selection. The attitude of the
church affected Darwin and his decision to publish his theory by believing that
if these new ideas of evolution were generally accepted, the Church would
crash, the moral fabric of society would be torn apart, and civilized man would
return to savagery. Darwin believed his work to be controversial and his wife didn’t
agree with his ideas because of her strong religious convictions. The
evolutionary theory was also viewed as a threat.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Charles-Lyell-Baronet
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Charles-Lyell-Baronet
I also chose Charles Lyell as the most influential on Charles Darwin. It is so crucial to have his theory of deep time in order to support the theory of evolution. Many other scientist did in fact influence Darwin but this one, at least to me, does seem to be one of the most important and a very positive one at that. It is so fascinating that Darwin could have developed such a ground breaking theory and yet was so hesitant to publish it. Very different from today's standards. Great post!
ReplyDeletehi! i find your post very interesting. I think that Charles Lyell was a huge influnece on Darwin . I didnt even know that he was studying law first then moved on to geology, an interest turn of events because without his ideas about earth I dont think darwin would have develope Natrual selection! Its was tough for Darwin to push his ideas out in a very religous heavy culture but he ultimately did it in the end
ReplyDeleteOne initial comment on format: Treat these posts as papers, with correct formatting and appropriate paragraphs. When a post is just one long paragraph, it can be very difficult for your readers (including the one grading your work) to parse out the different sections where you address particular prompts.
ReplyDeleteVery good background on Lyell's work, particularly your coverage of how Lyell influenced Darwin and how he was in turn influenced in his own acceptance of evolutionary theory later in life by Darwin's work.
While I understand your reasoning for your choice of bullet points, given that at this time Lyell didn't accept evolutionary theory, I'm not sure I see the connection. The points you list are more directly attributed to Malthus' work. Perhaps the point on the changing environment best applies? But aside from the bullet points, I suggest your comment on the concept of "deep time" actually describes Lyell's most important contribution to Darwin. Before Lyell, it was generally accepted that the earth was only a few thousand years old. Lyell demonstrated that the earth was at least millions of years old (we now know it is billions of years old). So how does that impact Darwin? Well, natural selection is a slow process. It would not have been possible for natural selection to produce not only the extant organisms in a few thousand years but also all of the extinct organisms. With Lyell's work, suddenly Darwin had the geological time he for his theory to work. Lyell, quite literally, gave Darwin the gift of time. Without that, Darwin's theory would not have worked.
I agree with your conclusion regarding the importance of Lyell to Darwin. I don't often like to credit one particular scientist with so much influence over the work of another, but I'm willing to do that with Lyell (and Malthus as well), for multiple reasons. The parallels between uniformitarianism are remarkable and I'm willing to bet Darwin recognized those parallels. The issue of an "old earth" is absolutely crucial. Additionally, Lyell was a very good friend of Darwins and, in spite of his reservations on the concept of evolution, he was key to helping Darwin finally publish after the letter from Wallace revealed that Darwin was at risk of losing credit for his ideas.
For the most part, I agree with your final section, except for the comment on his wife. Emma Darwin was indeed devout and Darwin was worried about how she would respond to his work. But before he published, she read his work and gave her approval. I don't think he would have published without it knowing the strength of her faith.