Neo-darwinism

form and content

Michael Ruse

Paul Thompson

pp. 495-512

in: James BROWN, Jürgen Mittelstrass (eds), An intimate relation, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was published in 1859. It is well known that it caused instant controversy, with Darwin's supporter Thomas Henry Huxley debating the Bishop of Oxford over our own supposedly ape origins (Lucas 1979). Less well known is the fact that many of Darwin's ideas, particularly of the occurrence of evolution per se, rapidly won acceptance by nearly all segments of Victorian society. Even clergymen came to think in evolutionary terms, so long as they were permitted to believe that God had miraculously breathed immortal souls into human frames, or some such thing (Ellegard 1958, Ruse 1979).

Cited authors

Darwin Charles

Huxley Thomas Henry