Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire on 12 February 1809, the fifth child of Dr. Robert Waring Darwin and Susannah Wedgewood. Darwin was enthused by his father’s medical observations, which helped teach him about human psychology, and took early to the solitary walks which became a lifelong pastime. Although passionately curious, Darwin did not excel within the rigid classical curriculum of Shrewsbury School. He read Shakespeare and was fascinated by chemistry, but was reprimanded by his headmaster for time wasting with the latter.

Brothers Charles and Erasmus Darwin both went to Edinburgh University, where three generations of Darwins had received medical training. Edinburgh, home to religious dissenters unable to take degrees at Oxford and Cambridge, exposed Darwin both to freethinkers and new sciences: he studied chemistry, learned taxidermy, and joined the Plinian Society, for students interested in natural history. However, he left Edinburgh without a degree in 1827, and went to Cambridge University, studying – on the advice of his father – to become a clergyman. Two years later, radical freethinkers Richard Carlile and the Reverend Robert Taylor (the ‘Devil’s Chaplain’), began an ‘infidel home missionary tour’ from Cambridge, and were run out of town. Darwin, whose own religious convictions were already uncertain, could have been left in no doubt about the risks of heretical opinion.

By the middle of the century, Darwin had radically broken away from creationism and natural theology. Before moving from London to Kent in 1842, Darwin had sketched his theory of evolution, but without intent to publish, fearing the effect on his relationships and reputation. His other publications, however, cemented his place as an authoritative geologist and zoologist. In 1853, Darwin met T.H. Huxley, part of a secularist, scientific network in London, which also included Herbert Spencer. He worked assiduously, through the study of seed transportation and selective breeding, to disprove generally held assumptions which might be used to challenge his evolutionary theories. In 1856, he began to write with publication in mind, battling sickness and ill health throughout.

1859 saw the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which elaborated the ideas of evolution by natural selection. His work was considered extremely radical by many, to moderate which responses often focused heavily on his observational skills and careful method, rather than on the veracity and implications of his theories. Despite publishing the Origin, Darwin had yet to publicly declare his views on human evolution. This did not happen until The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). These two pieces of work applied the theory of evolution to humans and further developed the natural selection theory.

Although some of Darwin’s views would be disavowed by humanists today, not least his statements on race, his work on evolution and natural selection enabled significant development in secular and philosophical thought, lending scientific strength to humanist ideas. Many leading figures in the early Ethical movement used a greater understanding of evolution to challenge oppressive biblical teachings, and to promote the responsibility of humankind to create meaning and improve the world. Among them were feminist thinkers like Florence Dixie and Zona Vallance, who argued that a dramatically new understanding of the world required a comparatively radical rethinking of women’s role in society.

Darwin wasn’t the first evolutionist thinker, but his work on natural selection cemented his personal importance and distinctive scientific legacy. His work in evolutionary biology emphasised careful observation and comparison, as well as the evaluation of differing historical narratives as a means of explaining change over time. Following the science where it led, even where it threatened his own worldview, epitomised Darwin’s devotion to his discipline, and enabled a theory which underpins our understanding of biology – and history – today. In his own untiring rationalism and willingness to dissent from received ideas in science and theology, and the impact of evolutionary ideas on the populace at large, Darwin’s relevance to humanist heritage cannot be underestimated.