Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species

Catalog description

Each week will be dedicated to one chapter of the first edition (1859) of Charles Darwin's masterpiece On the Origin of Species. Each chapter is divided by Darwin himself in a series of sections (usually about 10 sections per chapter). Each chapter will be commented on through an open discussion which will proceed section by section. The main goal of the open discussion will be to extract from each section the main argument(s) presented by Darwin. During the open discussion, the instructor will give students an overview of the historical background: ideas and knowledge at the time; each person cited by Darwin will be commented on; Darwin also sometimes refers to other people's findings or ideas without citing their names, and those will be revealed and commented on too. We will critically discuss the data that Darwin mentions, whether they are from his own observations or not. We will also pay special attention to his writing style (vocabulary, repetitions, etc.) which is very precise. Occasionally, changes that Darwin made in the later editions will also be highlighted (using the variorum edition). At the end of this course, students will be able to use a rigorous method to critically study any important work in history of science (by putting any text within its own historical, cultural, and scientific context). The students will understand in depth Darwin's remarkable achievement in On the Origin of Species, which will allow them to take it back to their classrooms with undergraduate students as well as apply it to their own research. Students will be able to make direct connections between Darwin's masterpiece and modern biology because Darwin touched upon many of the questions that we are still struggling with. After this course, students will be able to realize that vocabulary, rhetoric, and writing style do matter, because On the Origin of Species is a masterpiece of scientific communication, and apply that to their own scientific writing.