-
Educational back ground
Darwin attended many schools the first of which was schrewsbary. The second school was Edinburgh Medical school because his dad wanted him to be a doctor. Cambridge is where Darwin earned his bachelors of arts in 1831. It is here he became friends with John Henslow a botanist at the school, Darwins interest in rocks, fossils, animals and plants is how they met. Henslow is the one that recommended Darwin for the voyage on the HMS Beagle as the ships naturalist.(1). -
Voyage on the HMS Beagle
In 1831 Darwin was invited to join the Beagle as the ships naturalist. Most of the trip surveyed the coast of South of America, this included the Galapagos Islands. Darwin filled several note books with observations on plants, animals and geology as well as collecting thousands of specimens which he crated and sent home for further study. This trip defined his career and provided the beginning of his work on the theory of evolution by natural selection. (2). -
Darwins findings on finches
The finch was one of the animals Darwin had brought home to study. Once back in London he was able to study the birds, he concluded that they where all closely related. All of these birds closely resembled a mainland finch. These similarities are why Darwin theorized that these birds all evolved from the mainland species and adapted to different diets that where available on the different islands. What Darwin observed in these birds would later become known as adaptive radiation. (3) -
"On The Origin of The Species"
Darwin published his book "On The Origin of The Species" in 1859. It is in this book Darwin put forth the theory of evolution by natural selection. He used the evidence found in his study of the finch birds to support his theory. This revolutionized the way science looked at how species came to be and how they are related to one another. This theory is that species traits are passed on and selected for or against by things like the environment, known as descent with modification. (4) -
In conclusion and contributions to science
Darwins idea of natural selection and that organisms evolved from other organisms by and through the processes stated in his book(4) caused science to ask more and different questions about how these new things like descent with modification might happen or work. In modern science Dawins theory continues to be supported as we can now look at genetic code which provides more evidence of how these traits get passed on. Darwins theory of evolution was his contribution to the philosophy of science.