Customer Reviews

The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

People tend to look at me crazy when I tell them that I've read ORIGIN OF SPECIES. And really, I think we can all see where they are coming from. Nevertheless, being curious, I thought it might be interesting read the book that started all the fuss.

I was surprised to find how readable it really was. Think about this: what we are taught in high school biology is way more than Darwin knew when he wrote this book. Accordingly, the science described in this book is quite easy to understand for anyone who has previously taken a biology class.

Probably the most interesting thing about this book were the few times that Darwin threw in a little philosophical/theological side comment. I'll leave these juicy tidbits for you to find, but look for them as they add a little "kick" to an otherwise fairly "scientific" book. Though a bit lengthy, this accountant enjoyed ORIGIN OF SPECIES.

As a sidenote: I find the funniest thing about those "Jesus fish" eating the "Darwin fish" car decals is that the base idea is that the stronger fish wins- a.k.a. surival of the fittest. The ensuing contradiction of unwittingly using one of Darwin's base tenets to attack Darwinian evolution is priceless.

This is it -- the "Old Testament" of modern biology! Most people who accept evolution as the dominant paradigm should read this book, so that they know why. It is tough to get through, but incredibly rewarding. People who know Darwin's basic ideas don't really know how he arrived at them. So why not find out? Every page demonstrate's Darwin's brilliance, humility and insight. It is a must for the science buff's bookshelf! AOK!

If you like to research about origin of mankind or origin of life this is a must to have book. I bought this book to start studies about Teology & Antropology and I got amused with the clarity of purpose of Mr. Darwin. I think that it might had been very difficult to publish this book in a society very conservative in terms of religion and social life. Moreover, he also was a religious man and, to launch this book, he might had had a consciousness crisis or problems because he knew that this would shake all the ocidental way of life of that time.

In 1859, Darwin unleashed "Origin of Species", a juggernaut which smashed down millenia-old ideas with its elegant explanation of the natural variation of species, and extensive documentation of examples to demonstrate the work's argument.

As a practising scientist myself, I was thoroughly impressed by Darwin's care in addressing his assumptions, considering alternative explanations, and providing a robust defense of his conclusions with his vast array of field data. "Origin of Species" is, as a purely scientific work, a beautiful example of how such a text should be written and defended.

Of course, Darwin's work is now dated. Modern theories of evolution and genetics have added a tremedous amount of detail to Darwin's work, which obviously are not included in this text. If you are interested in a more modern adaption of Darwin's theory, I suggest John Maynard-Smith's "Theory of Evolution". However, Darwin's work remains a lucid, powerful introduction to evolutionary theory, with a host of interesting examples of how his theory works in nature. For both its historical and scientific merits, "The Origin of Species" should be part of any literate person's library. Highly recommended.

Because Darwin's "Origin" may be published by anyone, there are various editions available that seemingly differ only in price and introduction. In fact, however, among the various published versions of the "Origin," there is a difference vastly more important than price and intro -- that is, which *edition* is being published. Harvard and Penguin publish the first edition of the "Origin," whereas Bantam, Modern Library, and Prometheus Books publish the sixth edition.

For almost every purpose, the first edition is the only version worth reading. Aside from its overwhelmingly superior historical merit, the argument in the first edition is shorter, livelier, and more persuasive than the one in the sixth edition, where Darwin includes concessions to physicists such as Kelvin, which were ultimately proven unnecessary (as Kelvin's claims were shown to be in serious error). These erroneous concessions forced Darwin to mistakenly add several non-Darwinian arguments to his later editions.

So, if you want to read the book that changed biology forever, then read the "Origin" as it was originally written: buy the Harvard or Penguin copies.

Believe it or not, this book was intended to be merely an introductory statement to a massive 20-volume treasise on evolution that Darwin had intended to write. However, he died before his Magnum Opus was completed. Although Darwin was not the first man to champion evolution, he was the first to create a convincing argument for it. This classic book thus records the beginning of a huge paradigm shift in biology. However, don't expect a flawless, up-to-date discussion - much has changed about evolutionary theory since Darwin's time. To fill in the holes, you might also want to read something more modern as a supplement. Richard Dawkin's "The Selfish Gene" would be an excellent choice. Outdated concepts aside, "On the Origin of Species" puts forward an ingeniously simple argument and backs it up with an enormous and varied set of examples. It is easy to see how this book was destined to shake the foundations of science.

Okay, seeing as how I am a teenager, this book didn't seem very interesting at first, but after I got into it it helped me to understand this whole evolution thing. Another thing I would like to say is that I know Darwin is not the most interesting writer, but he does have some important things to say in his book. If you like to learn more about biology and things like how species and stuffed evolved, devolved, or if you are tired and just can't seem to fall asleep, read the book. It is pretty good.

I'm just curious about those of you whose mouths are overflowing with druel in your overwhelming infatuation with Charles Darwin. No one seemed to comment on Darwin's contention about a "favored race". After all the 21st century world has been through over the issue of race, one would think that intellectuals would comment more on this rarely delved-into area of Darwin's work.

In Origin of Species Darwin does an incredible job of documenting the mutability of species, of showing that changes can be caused not only by human breeding, but also by what you might call natural breeding, or "natural selection," as he calls it. His evidence was simply overwhelming.

The shortcoming of the book is that he gave no evidence for his main contention - that life is so mutable that a single-celled life form might evolve through many generations into, say, an elephant. The best he did on that count was to speculate. One of his odder speculations was that whales may be the descendants of animals like bears who swam through the water with their mouths open. In fact, I thought the evidence he presented could be reasonably interpreted as meaning that species have gene pools that allow a range of expression - for example, look at all the kinds of dogs there are.

That Darwin spent several chapters defending his theory against the lack of fossil evidence is also interesting because lack of fossil evidence is still being brought up as an objection. Clearly this objection has not been answered, or has been answered inadequately.

Having said all that, Origin of Species was the most persuasive argument for evolution I've heard. It is the focal point of the entire evolution-creation debate, and anybody interested in the topic should be familiar with it, regardless of which side of the issue they are on.

I find it difficult to be able to rate this book in the conventional manner of attributing the books quality on a scale of 1 to 5. But I have and I've given it 'one'.

I wondered onto this book site via a 'greatest books of all time' reading list which linked to this page. One of the few books on the list which I'd actually managed to read. My earlier statement of difficulty in ranking this book lies in its historical importance verses entertainment - the former immense, the latter minuscule.

I'm a Zoological graduate and so the importance and reverence of Darwin's The Origin of Species have been fundamental to everything I've done in the last 3 years, however, when I actually sat down and decided to read the original text I got no more than halfway through the book before deciding I'd had enough.

This work being in the greatest 100 books of all time is wholly justified - it is a great book. But the potential reader must keep in mind that Darwin wrote this book having to carefully detail the concept of evolution - decent with modification, his critics would be many and any flaws would be leapt upon to discredit his heresy. However, now we (most of us) understand and accept his teaching and so don't need to sit through pages of him waffling on about pigeon breeders to accept what he's saying.

If I may be so bold to summarise Darwin (my lectures would no doubt crucify me for such defamation); Creature is created, creature reproduces, one creature offspring deviates from the norm which gives it a slight advantage over its rivals (slightly bigger teeth for killing, slightly longer ergo faster legs for running away), this enables the offspring's genes to spread wider then its competitors so become more common, this mutant offspring will reproduce until further useful mutations give greater advantage subsequent offspring thus spreading, the process continues indefinitely. And so, that's basically it, an important rule but please don't bother sitting through the entire book to learn this, it really isn't worth the effort.