Charles Darwin and evolution

Darwin was a British scientist who laid the foundations of the theory of evolution and transformed the way we think about the natural world.

In the second half of the 19th century, some ideological conflicts were beginning to undermine the self confident attitude that had characterised the first part of Victorian’s reign. Changes regarded several fields: scientific achievements, industrialisation, sexuality and religion, and a growing pessimism began to affect intellectuals and artists, who expressed in different ways their sense of doubt about the stability of Victorian society, that was entering the period of Decadentism.

Natural selection is Darwin’s most famous theory: “On the Origin of Species”.

It states that evolutionary change comes through the production of variation in each generation and differential survival of individuals with different combinations of these variable characters. Individuals with characteristics which increase their probability of survival will have more opportunities to reproduce and their offspring will also benefit from the heritable, advantageous character. So over time these variants will spread through the population.

In addition, while Darwin’s theory discarded the version of creation given by the Bible, it also seemed to show that the strongest survived and the weakest deserved to be defeated.

The philosopher Herbert Spencer applied Darwin’s ideas to social life, arguing that economic competition was the same as natural selection and that the poor and oppressed did not deserve compassion.