Talk:The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] What is sexual selection
The article goes into a lot of background information before it actually explains what Darwin suggested in his book on sexual selection. The article assumes that the reader will go through the length of the article reading about the problems and criticism of Darwin's previous work on natural selection and still be interested in reading what this book itself was about. Not till the second para of the sub topic "Apparently non-adaptive features" does the article explain sexual selection in the lines "Darwin developed the theory of sexual selection, which outlined how different characters could be selected for if they conveyed a reproductive advantage to the individual." Even in that para it mentions the problem of a half eye, before it mentions the problem of seemingly useless features. I think what sexual selection is, should be mentioned (in brief) early on in the article, later the article can move into details.
Nice article, otherwise :)
- Well, I agree. I had meant to write that section, but haven't gotten around to it yet (some time later). :-) --Fastfission 05:56, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Stubs
Can someone complete those stubs? --Emplynx 16:45, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Monogenism verus polygenism
The article says that Darwin was a monogenist, meaning he believed human races were merely "sub-species" of each other. The following sentence also describes polygenism as the belief that races are "sub-species" of each other. The difference between the two needs to be clarified. -- Luke
- Sorry about that! I clarified it. --Fastfission 00:00, 20 April 2006 (UTC)
Has anyone actually read The Descent of Man? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Uber336 (talk • contribs).
"Finally, although the gradual decrease and ultimate extinction of the races of man is a highly complex problem, depending on many causes which differ in different places and at different times; it is the same problem as that presented by the extinction of one of the higher animals- of the fossil horse, for instance, which disappeared from South America, soon afterwards to be replaced, within the same districts, by countless troups of the Spanish horse. The New Zealander seems conscious of this parallelism, for he compares his future fate with that of the native rat now almost exterminated by the European rat. Though the difficulty is great to our imagination, and really great, if we wish to ascertain the precise causes and their manner of action, it ought not to be so to our reason, as long as we keep steadily in mind that the increase of each species and each race is constantly checked in various ways; so that if any new check, even a slight one, be superadded, the race will surely decrease in number; and decreasing numbers will sooner or later lead to extinction; the end, in most cases, being promptly determined by the inroads of conquering tribes."
- Uh, yeah, I've read it. What's your point? Again, Darwin isn't being prescriptive, he's trying to be descriptive. There's a big difference there. --Fastfission 14:08, 27 August 2006 (UTC)
It seems like Darwin is trying to equate the extermination of humans with the extermination of animals. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Uber336 (talk • contribs).
- Only in the descriptive sense—he thinks that if you mix different groups of humans together, over time the more "fit" group will probably end up exterminating the "less fit" group, as he had seen actually happen in South America, where Europeans were devastating native populations through disease, war, and encroachment. He's not advocating it in the slightest. That much is obvious if you actually read it or know anything about his views on aborigines or slavery. He was a fellow of the Ethnological Society, which advocated the need to protect endangered native groups as one would protect endangered animals. So yes, he does "equate" them in the sense that he sees them as analogous, not in that he thinks that either are acceptable. --Fastfission 01:45, 28 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Political views of Darwin and Galton
Neither Galton nor Darwin, though, advocated any eugenic policies such as those which would be undertaken in the early 20th century, as government coercion of any form was very much against their political opinions.
What is the source for this? FilipeS 23:21, 28 November 2006 (UTC)
- Diane B. Paul, "Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics," in Jonathan Hodge and Gregory Radick, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 214-239., in the References section. --Fastfission 00:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks. Somehow, I'd missed the Biography section. :o FilipeS 01:17, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
