Naturalist Charles Darwin was born on the 12th of February in 1809 in the small town of Shrewsbury, England. He had 5 siblings and throughout his family’s history, a string of Scientists. Darwin grew up wealthy and privileged and loved to explore the world around him. Charles attended Edinburgh University at age 16 and in two years became a student at Christ’s College in Cambridge. Whilst at Christ’s College, Darwin was recommended for a naturalist’s position aboard the HMS Beagle. Over the course of the voyage, Darwin collected many specimens including fossils, plants and birds. This trip had a monumental effect on Darwin’s view of natural history. It was the basis of his revolutionary theory about the evolution and origin of living beings. On November 24th of 1859 Darwin published his most well-known book ‘The Origin of Species’ which included the most significant parts of his research on natural selection up until that point. This publication challenged the views of both fellow naturalists of the time, but more importantly, it challenged the most highly viewed opinion of the time; the church’s theory of creationism, and over time, Darwin’s theory of natural selection became more greatly accepted by the world. Following a lifetime of devoted research, Charles Darwin passed away at his family home in London on the 19th of April 1882, at the age of 73. Darwin’s theory was proven in the next century with the evidence provided from Mendelians laws of Inheritance.
Impact on Global Society
Before Charles Darwin devised his famous theory of evolution, the most widely believed theory of how everything in the universe came to be was the Christian theory of creationism. Creationism states that the universe and all life originated ‘from specific acts of divine creation’ meaning that everything was created by the holy being, God. A popular theory among Natural Historians was the theory of Catastrophism. This theory is connected to creationism and states that species become extinct solely due to catastrophes and that these catastrophes are often followed by new species being formed ex nihilio meaning out of nothing. Darwin’s theory of evolution completely contradicted all the theories that existed at the time. Darwin was brave enough to challenge the Church and by doing this he changed the way the global society thinks forever. Although his impact on the world was not immediately recognised, over time the world came to accept his theory and it became more common to challenge the theory of creationism. By him challenging the theory of how the world was created, it inspired people to be more courageous in challenging and contradicting the socially accepted ways of thinking. Charles Darwin inspired the work of many famous people throughout history including; Francis Galton who formulated the field Eugenics (the study of selective breeding applied to humans), Theodore Roosevelt who became the 26th US President and most famously, Gregor Mendel who studied genetics and how traits were passed down through generations. Similarly to Darwin, Mendel’s theory of inheritance was not widely accepted until after he died. It is evident that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and his studies in Natural Selection have changed the way people consider the world to be created and have changed the way people have approached challenging groups such as the church who have such power over the world, and set the ‘norms’ for what is believed and accepted by modern society.
Reflection:
Charles Darwin was a Naturalist who is most famous for his work regarding Natural Selection and the Theory of Evolution. Darwin based his theory of evolution on five key observations and inferences drawn from them. These have been summarized by Ernst Mayr to be;
1. ‘Species have great fertility. They will make more offspring than can grow to adulthood.’
2. ‘populations remain roughly the same size, with modest fluctuations.’
3. ‘food resources are limited, but are relatively constant most of the time’
4. ‘in sexually reproducing species, generally no two individuals are identical. Variation is rampant.’
5. ‘much of this variation is heritable.’
These 5 key points infer that where individuals in a world of stable populations struggle to survive, individuals with the ‘best’ traits will be more likely to survive, and the characteristics from those individuals will be carried on to their offspring. I believe that Charles Darwin is one of the most influential global thinkers in all of history. Darwin is famous for the theories he created. I believe that he demonstrated many of the characteristics required to be a great thinker such as courage, commitment and faith.
To be a revolutionary thinker, I believe one must demonstrate certain characteristics. Charles Darwin was a man with great courage, strong faith in himself and strong commitment to his work. Throughout his work as a Naturalist, Darwin would have been in constant fear of being totally rejected as the world was so loyal to the theory of creationism. By being brave enough to develop and prove his theory to the rest of the world. I believe that Charles Darwin inspired people not only to research the field of evolution but he also inspired so many people across the globe to challenge the conventional ways of thinking and to consider possible alternative theories to the theories which we currently have and consider as ‘fact’. Darwin also had strong faith in himself. It is clear by his persistence and effort that he was able to believe in his idea. I believe that strong faith is one of the essential qualities of a global thinker and helped to make Charles Darwin so successful. The third quality I believe makes a great thinker is commitment. For 24 years Darwin perfected his theories and ensured he had all of the evidence possible to prove them to the world. By demonstrating all of these attributes which I believe make a great thinker great, Charles Darwin proved to be an inspirational figure to people at the time of his theory’s development and still today. I believe that to be inspirational is the most essential characteristic of all great thinkers ever to exist and that being inspirational is the reason that great thinkers are so important to the world. People who are inspirational to others are the greatest thinkers because the more people they inspire, the more ideas that are created. Although Charles Darwin did not necessarily set out with the aim of inspiring others, I believe this is one of the most important impacts he had on the global society.
In conclusion I believe that Charles Darwin is one of the Greatest thinkers of all time. I believe that his characteristics of courage, commitment and faith made him such a great thinker. The way he inspired others to challenge the norms of society are what I believe are his greatest impacts on the world we live in today.