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Introduction: Why Read the “Origin of Species”?

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Understanding Evolution in Darwin's "Origin"

Part of the book series: History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences ((HPTL,volume 34))

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Abstract

Understanding Evolution in Darwin’s “Origin”: The Emerging Context of Evolutionary Thinking aims to encourage the reading of On the Origin of Species and to include it in the teaching of evolution. With a comprehensive overview of the development of Darwin’s theory, the volume provides relevant aspects of Darwin’s life and work in connection with the broader context of his time. The historical and philosophical analysis, mirrored in the sociocultural scope, enables the diachronic reading of the text. It is built on various sources of historians and philosophers of science and sheds fresh light on them. Its uniqueness is the broad structure that covers four parts: the pre-Darwinian concepts of species changes; some key elements of Darwin’s pursuit of the causes of evolution, from his voyage on Beagle to the publication of his groundbreaking work; chapter-by-chapter analysis of the “Origin”; and subsequent developments in evolutionary thought.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The idea comes from the parallelism thesis of Jean Piaget and Rolando García presented in Psicogénesis e Historia de la ciencia (1983/2008). Despite the criticism that the development of science does not follow a linear and progressive course, such parallels between the development of notions and cognitive operations from elementary to higher levels of cognition can be traced between early and advanced stages of a given theory.

  2. 2.

    In the introduction of her online variorum edition, Barbara Bordalejo identified six types of changes: depersonalization, reinforcement, objectivization, clarification, updating, and semantic changes. This variorum identified every change made by Darwin between the six British editions from 1859 to 1872 and can be consulted on open platforms accessible at <http://darwin-online.org.uk/Variorum/Introduction.html>.

  3. 3.

    In 1959, Morse Peckham published a canonical variorum of the six editions of Darwin’s Origin. For in-depth thematic comparisons and commentary, works by Nelio Bizzo (1992, 2014, 2018, 2020) and Jim Endersby (2009) are recommended sources to explore.

  4. 4.

    The first edition is finally available in reliable Portuguese translations coincidentally published in 2018. The volume edited by Edipro includes a careful review of the translation of biological terms by Nelio Bizzo, who also provides a preface and extensive notes that offer conceptual, epistemic, and historical contexts. On the other hand, the Ubu edition, while encountering some issues with biology terms, may be seen as closer to Darwin’s style of writing. It includes additional texts, such as the publication with Wallace in 1858, the historical sketch, and the new seventh chapter, among others. These translations contribute to making the first edition more accessible to readers in the Brazilian context.

  5. 5.

    For some examples of the difficulties of a functional understanding of natural selection, see Anderson et al. (2002); Tidon and Lewontin (2004); Gregory (2008); Sinatra et al. (2008); Gregory (2009); Rosengren et al. (2012); Kampourakis and Nehm (2014); Cooper (2017); Bizzo (2019); Harms and Reiss (2019); and Oliveira and Cook (2019).

  6. 6.

    At the Laboratory of the History of Biology and Teaching (LaHBE) at the Institute of Biosciences of the University of São Paulo, postgraduate research has been conducted on teaching evolution with an inquiry-based approach and using diverse strategies including primary sources, replication of historical experiments, narratives, and web games such as Silva (2013); Souza (2014, 2021); Jensen (2016); and Cortez (2018).

  7. 7.

    In Brazil, unlike countries like the United States, the study of rhetorical language devices is primarily limited to Portuguese classes, typically at the secondary school level. This confinement creates the perception that these resources are only relevant within that specific context. However, if rhetorical devices were incorporated into the teaching and learning objectives across all disciplines, along with other metalinguistic aspects, students would be equipped to identify and analyze their usage in various texts, including scientific language. Such inclusion would be particularly valuable when engaging with science communication in both traditional and digital media.

  8. 8.

    Literature on NOS is extensive, and while acknowledging that the selection is subjective, here are some influential works: Jenkins (1990, 2013); Lederman (1992, 2019); Pérez et al. (2001); McComas (2002, 2020); Matthews (2012); Allchin (2013); Erduran and Dagher (2014); Lederman (2019). A special issue of the Brazilian journal Filosofia e História da Biologia (volume 8, number 3, 2013) focuses on episodes developed for high school education, available in Portuguese at <https://www.abfhib.org/revista/>. For Latin American works on the history, philosophy, and sociology of science in education, Prestes and Silva (2018) have compiled a collection.

  9. 9.

    Comprehensive surveys that describe the historical developments and the variety of tendencies on the nature of science (NOS) include works such as Duschl (1994); McComas (2002, 2020); Matthews (2003); and Lederman and Lederman (2014).

  10. 10.

    For the need of explicit and reflexive treatment of nature of science (NOS), see, for instance, Khishfe and Abd-El-Khalick (2002); Smith and Scharmann (2008); Hodson (2009); Rudge and Howe (2009); Duschl and Grandy (2013).

  11. 11.

    In addition to previously mentioned works, other noteworthy contributions include Dennison (1993); Rudge et al. (2014); Cohen (2016); Lorsbach et al. (2019).

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  1. Laboratory of the History of Biology and Teaching, Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of Biosciences, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Maria Elice Brzezinski Prestes

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    Maria Elice Brzezinski Prestes

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Elice Brzezinski Prestes, M. (2023). Introduction: Why Read the “Origin of Species”?. In: Elice Brzezinski Prestes, M. (eds) Understanding Evolution in Darwin's "Origin". History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol 34. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40165-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40165-7_1

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