To Be or Not to Be

Abstract

The theory of evolution has a close association with the well-known quotation from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The term “evolution” in its modern sense as a development which can only be understood by an extended historical consideration was first used by the astronomer Sir John F. W. Herschel (1792–1871) who tried to arrange the existing diversity of stars into certain common developmental lines. Darwin himself stated his opinion of Herschel as the model philosopher of the time with the following revealing words:

...Sir John Herschel’s “Introduction to the Study of Natural Philosophy” aroused in me a burning enthusiasm; at least, to make the most insignificant contribution to the edifice of science. No single or a dozen other books influenced me as strongly as this one (retranslated from Charles Darwin in F. Darwin 1887, Vol. 1, p. 55).

Nothing is easier than to admit in words the truth of the universal struggle for life, or more difficult at least I have found it so than constantly to bear this conclusion in mind. Yet unless it be thoroughly engrained in the mind, I am convinced that the whole economy of nature, with every fact on distribution, rarity, abundance, extinction, and variation, will be dimly seen or quite misunderstood.

Charles Darwin