Darwin Addresses Objections

Charles Darwin addressed objections to his theory advanced by contemporary naturalists. In The Origin of Species, Darwin concedes to many objections from his library (pictured left), noting –

“Some of them are so serious that to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree staggered; but, to the best of my judgment, the greater number are only apparent, and those that are real are not, I think, fatal to the theory.”

Three chapters acknowledge objections to his theory in The Origin – chapters 6, 7, and 10. Anticipating a solution to these objections in the future, Darwin argued –

“I look with confidence to the future — to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question impartially.”

Objections

Darwin concedes to objections to his theory. However, for many of these Darwin did not formulate resolutions to the objections, including the following issues –

Complexity of Eyes

“To arrive, however, at a just conclusion regarding the formation of the eye, with all its marvelous yet not absolutely perfect characters, it is indispensable that the reason should conquer the imagination; but I have felt the difficulty far too keenly to be surprised at others hesitating to extend the principle of natural selection to so startling a length.”

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree.”

Similar Organs in Remotely Allied Species

Bioluminescence “belonging to widely different families” that “offer, under our present state of ignorance, a difficulty almost exactly parallel with that of the electric organs.”

Different Structures for the Same Function in Closely Allied Species

Two genera of orchid, the Coryanthes and the Catasetum use “widely different” structures “serving the same end.”

Parts with Little Importance

“I have sometimes felt great difficulty in understanding the origin or formation of parts of little importance; almost as great, though of a very different kind, as in the case of the most perfect and complex organs.”

Giraffe tail: “artificially constructed fly-flapper… seems at first incredible that this could have been adapted for its present purpose by successive slight modifications, each better and better fitted, for so trifling an object as to drive away flies.”

Mammary Glands

“Through what agency the glands over a certain space became more highly specialised than the others, I will not pretend to decide, whether in part through compensation of growth, the effects of use, or of natural selection.

“The development of the mammary glands would have been of no service, and could not have been effected through natural selection, unless the young at the same time were able to partake of the secretion. There is no greater difficulty in understanding how young mammals have instinctively learnt to suck the breast, than in understanding how unhatched chickens have learnt to break the egg-shell by tapping against it with their specially adapted beaks; or how a few hours after leaving the shell they have learnt to pick up grains of food.”

Complex Instincts

“Many instincts are so wonderful that their development will probably appear to the reader a difficulty sufficient to overthrow my whole theory.”

“He must be a dull man who can examine the exquisite structure of a [honeycomb], so beautifully adapted to its end, without enthusiastic admiration. We hear from mathematicians that bees have practically solved a recondite problem, and have made their cells of the proper shape to hold the greatest possible amount of honey, with the least possible consumption of precious wax in their construction. It has been remarked that a skilful workman … would find it very difficult to make cells of wax of the true form, though this is effected by a crowd of bees working in a dark hive.”

Neuter Ants, Different Castes

“One special difficulty, which at first appeared to me insuperable, and actually fatal to the whole theory … for these neuters often differ widely in instinct and in structure from both the males and fertile females, … yet, from being sterile, they cannot propagate their kind.”

“But we have not as yet touched on the acme of the difficulty; namely, the fact that the neuters of several ants differ, not only from the fertile females and males, but from each other, sometimes to an almost incredible degree, and are thus divided into two or even three castes.”

“It will indeed be thought that I have an overweening confidence in the principle of natural selection, when I do not admit that such wonderful and well-established facts at once annihilate the theory.”

No Transitional Links

“Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely-graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory.”

“Though we do find many links — we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all extinct and existing forms by the finest graduated steps.”

“That the geological record is imperfect all will admit; but that it is imperfect to the degree required by our theory, few will be inclined to admit.”

“He who rejects this view of the imperfection of the geological record, will rightly reject the whole theory.”

No Transitional Links Within Geological Formations

“[I]t cannot be doubted that the geological record, viewed as a whole, is extremely imperfect; but if we confine our attention to any one formation, it becomes much more difficult to understand why we do not therein find closely graduated varieties between the allied species which lived at its commencement and at its close.”

“But I do not pretend that I should ever have suspected how poor was the record in the best preserved geological sections, had not the absence of innumerable transitional links between the species which lived at the commencement and close of each formation, pressed so hardly on my theory.”

Sudden Appearance of New Forms of Life

“The abrupt manner in which whole groups of species suddenly appear in certain formations, has been urged by several paleontologists — for instance, by Agassiz, Pictet, and Sedgwick — as a fatal objection to the belief in the transmutation of species.”

“There is another and allied difficulty, which is much more serious. I allude to the manner in which species belonging to several of the main divisions of the animal kingdom suddenly appear in the lowest known fossiliferous rocks,” i.e., the Cambrian strata. (p. 308) “To the question why we do not find rich fossiliferous deposits … prior to the Cambrian system, I can give no satisfactory answer.”

“The case at present must remain inexplicable; and may be truly urged as a valid argument against the views here entertained.”

Darwin’s Philosophy Transition

In addressing these objections, Darwin demonstrates how his approach transitioned from the principles of science to the deductive philosophical approach. Continuing with the “look with confidence” sentence (above) Darwin argued to abandon science –

“I look with confidence to the future — to young and rising naturalists, who will be able to view both sides of the question impartially. Whoever is led to believe that species are mutable will do good service by conscientiously expressing his conviction; for thus only can the load of prejudice by which this subject is overwhelmed be removed.”

By replacing inductive reasoning with a “believe” in evolution perspective, Darwin left the principles of science. In a letter to American botanist Asa Gray in 1857, Darwin acknowledged –

“I am quite conscious that my speculations run quite beyond the bounds of true science.”

Elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 1839, Darwin was awarded a Royal Medal in 1853 for publishing The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs During the First Part of the Voyage of the Beagle Under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy During the Years 1832 and 1836.

The Royal Society, however, never recognized or awarded Darwin for any of his works on evolution, including natural selection.

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