Essay on "Did Darwin Develop the Theory of Evolution?"

Essay 4 pages (1308 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Wallace wrote to Darwin: "Most or perhaps all the variations from the typical form of a species must have some definite effect, however slight, on the habits or capacities of the individuals. Even a change of colour might, by rendering them more or less distinguishable, affect their safety; a greater or less development of hair might modify their habits. More important changes, such as an increase in the power or dimensions of the limbs or any of the external organs, would more or less affect their mode of procuring food or the range of country which they inhabit. It is also evident that most changes would affect, either favourably or adversely, the powers of prolonging existence" (Wallace 1858:53). But while of course it is true that survivability in the environment is important in passing on traits, it is not the only determinant of being able to sexually reproduce.

Both men agreed that the process of natural selection produced different results than the human-engineered process of artificial selection for livestock breeding or companionship. Wrote Wallace: "Our quickly fattening pigs, short-legged sheep, pouter pigeons, and poodle dogs could never have come into existence in a state of nature…If turned wild on the pampas, such animals would probably soon become extinct" (Wallace 1958:63). Darwin would stress, however, that the primary difference between wild and domestic animals was sexual selection, which was engineered in domestic species but was allowed to happen in a 'natural' fashion in a state of nature, where animals chose their own mates.

Yet another reason that Wallace has largely been forgotten today and is no longer praised in the same manner as Darwin is the fact that in later life he embraced spiritualism and a number of non-scientific theories about human nature. "Darwin and Wallace also disagreed on human evolution. For Darwin, all aspects of humans, including the emotions, conscious mind and intelligence could be explained by natural or sexual selection" while Wallace came to believe in teleology or the notion that everything happens for a larger spiritual purpose (Montgomery 2009). Darwin believed that natural selection was not a moral force but an impersonal one. "Darwin's arguments were concerned dominantly with competitive selection, which causes the less fit forms to be displaced as a secondary effect of the preservation of fitter forms, whereas Wallace, when illustrating the operation of natural selection, referred almost exclusively to what may be called 'environmental selection', the active principle of which is the direct elimination of the unfit" (Bulmer 2005).

Wallace should be credited with coming up with a theory very much like Darwin's and the important anthropological research he conducted while formulating his theory. However, the differences between his theory and Darwin's are significant enough to give Darwin the primary credit for the theory of evolution. Wallace's emphasis on environmental compatibility over sexual selection, in addition to his belief that "an inferior variety could coexist with a superior variety until environmental deterioration forced the extinction of the inferior one" versus "the Darwinian argument that an advantageous variation would gradually increase and its parental form would decrease in frequency until it became extinct" due to sexual selection ultimately supports the claim that the theory of evolution can rightfully be nicknamed Darwinism (Bulmer 2005).

References

Bulmer, M. (2005). The theory of natural selection of Alfred Russel Wallace. Notes Rec. R. Soc.

22 (59)2: 125-136. Retrieved from:

http://rsnr.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/59/2/125.full

McKae, R. (2013). Alfred Russel Wallace, the forgotten man of evolution, gets his moment

The Guardian. Retrieved from:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/jan/20/alfred-russel-wallace-forgotten-man-evolution

Montgomery, S. (2009). What about Wallace? Charles Darwin & Evolution.

Retrieved from: http://darwin200.christs.cam.ac.uk/pages/index.php?page_id=d8

Wallace, A. (1858). The 1858 Darwin-Wallace paper. Prepared by J.L. Reveal, P.J. Bottino & C.F. Delwiche. Retrieved from:

http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/pbio/darwin/dw04.html READ MORE

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