Criticisms on "the Origin of Species": From 'the Natural History Review', 1864
Criticisms on "the Origin of Species": From 'the Natural History Review', 1864
Published in 1864, Thomas Henry Huxley's 'Criticisms on The Origin of Species' critiques Charles Darwin's theories on evolution and natural selection. Huxley addresses various objections to Darwin's work, particularly regarding teleology and the existence of transitional forms. He argues that Darwin's theory provides a comprehensive explanation of life's complexities without the need for a designer, significantly influencing future discussions in biological science and the development of modern evolutionary theory.
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“Those who are ignorant of Geology, find no difficulty in believing that the world was made as it is; and the shepherd, untutored in history, sees no reason to regard the green mounds which indicate the site of a Roman camp, as aught but part and parcel of the primeval hill-side.””
— Thomas Henry Huxley
“Cats catch mice, small birds and the like, very well. Teleology tells us that they do so because they were expressly constructed for so doing”
— Thomas Henry Huxley
“All organisms vary. It is in the highest degree improbable that any given variety should have exactly the same relations to surrounding conditions as the parent stock. In that case it is either better fitted (when the variation may be called useful), or worse fitted, to cope with them. If better, it will tend to supplant the parent stock; if worse, it will tend to be extinguished by the parent stock.If (as is hardly conceivable) the new variety is so perfectly adapted to the conditions that no improvement upon it is possible,”
— Thomas Henry Huxley
“In Paley's famous illustration, the adaptation of all the parts of the watch to the function, or purpose, of showing the time, is held to be evidence that the watch was specially contrived to that end; on the ground, that the only cause we know of, competent to produce such an effect as a watch which shall keep time, is a contriving intelligence adapting the means directly to that end.Suppose, however, that any one had been able to show that the watch had not been made directly by any person, but that it was the result of the modification of another watch which kept time but poorly; and that this again had proceeded from a structure which could hardly be called a watch at all”
— Thomas Henry Huxley
“According to Teleology, each organism is like a rifle bullet fired straight at a mark; according to , organisms are like grapeshot of which one hits something and the rest fall wide.For the teleologist an organism exists because it was made for the conditions in which it is found; for the an organism exists because, out of many of its kind, it is the only one which has been able to persist in the conditions in which it is found.Teleology implies that the organs of every organism are perfect and cannot be improved; the theory simply affirms that they work well enough to enable the organism to hold its own against such competitors as it has met with, but admits the possibility of indefinite improvement.””
— Thomas Henry Huxley
“That which struck the present writer most forcibly on his first perusal of the 'Origin of Species' was the conviction that Teleology, as commonly understood, had received its deathblow at Mr. 's hands. For the teleological argument runs thus: an organ or organism (A) is precisely fitted to perform a function or purpose (B); therefore it was specially constructed to perform that function.””
— Thomas Henry Huxley
