The Origin of Species

by

Charles Darwin

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Themes and Colors
Natural Selection and the Power of Nature Theme Icon
Reason, Argument, and the Scientific Method Theme Icon
Time and Progress Theme Icon
Collaboration and Science Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Origin of Species, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Natural Selection and the Power of Nature

At the heart of Charles Darwin’s landmark book The Origin of Species is a concept called natural selection. He referred to the “origin” of species in his title because when the book was first published in the mid-1800s, there was a controversy over how species arose. Many believed that each species was created separately and that once created, species were immutable (meaning they didn’t change). While this was not necessarily a religious belief on…

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Reason, Argument, and the Scientific Method

Throughout The Origin of Species, Darwin makes it clear that his book is not simply a collection of facts, but structured in the form of an argument. Whole sections and even chapters of the book are dedicated specifically to answering the objections of critics, which Darwin attempts to do methodically and with hard evidence. While scientific writing is often associated with dry, impartial language, Darwin was writing for a relatively wide audience, and he…

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Time and Progress

One of Darwin’s central ideas in The Origin of Species was that over time, organisms would become better adapted to their environment. As less well-adapted organisms die out and become extinct, the organisms that remain are better suited to compete for resources, often containing organs and body parts of remarkable complexity, like the skull or wings or eyes. While not all critics agreed, Darwin believed that even these very complex structures could arise…

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Collaboration and Science

Although today Charles Darwin is one of the most famous names in science, in The Origin of Species, Darwin presents a more limited view of his own influence, suggesting that many of his ideas were merely adapted from the work of other eminent scientists of his era. While it could be argued that this was a rhetorical strategy—a way for Darwin to minimize how potentially radical his ideas were—it is also clear that Darwin…

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