Detonando dois mitos sobre Darwin

Mito 1. Darwin teve o insight da evolução comparando as espécies de tentilhões das ilhas Galápagos. NADA MAIS FALSO!

PDF gratuito do artigo de Frank J. Sulloway no Journal of the History of Biology aqui.

Mito 2. Darwin teria demorado em publicar sua teoria da evolução para não ferir a sensibilidade religiosa da Inglaterra vitoriana. NADA MAIS FALSO!

Mind the gap: did Darwin avoid publishing his theory for many years?

John van Wyhe*
+ Author Affiliations

Christ's College Cambridge CB2 3BU, UK
(jmv21@cam.ac.uk)
Abstract

It is widely believed that Charles Darwin avoided publishing his theory of evolution for many years. Many explanations have been proposed to identify Darwin's reasons or motives for doing so. This essay demonstrates that Darwin's delay is a recent historiographical theme for which there is no clear evidence, and indeed is overwhelmingly contradicted by the historical evidence. It is also shown that Darwin's belief in evolution was not a secret before publication. Instead of a man afraid of his secret theory's being revealed to his prejudiced contemporaries, it is demonstrated that Darwin was understandably very busy and began his species book when he had completed work in hand, just as he had intended all along. This essay therefore rewrites a fundamental chapter in the story of Darwin's life and work as usually told.

Keywords:
Charles Darwin evolution ‘Darwin's delay’ historiography
Footnotes

© 2007 The Royal Society

PDF gratuito do artigo aqui.

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NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Há outros mitos criados pela Nomenklatura científica sobre Darwin que são facilmente desmontados pela História da Ciência quando as fontes primárias são consultadas e falam sem a censura imposta pelos guardas-cancelas, oops pareceristas, peer-reviewers é mais chique. Eles agem assim porque se fizerem o contrário - zip, guilhotina na carreira acadêmica.