kaitlynhermansen's review against another edition
3.0
This book obviously changed the world- but oh man this was a DOOZY. I almost feel bad leaving it a 3 star review, but Darwin’s dead so maybe it’s okay. This book was just too smart for me- too many big words all at once and too much information for my tiny brain. It draaaaaaggged. Seriously. This took me so long to get through. At times it’s interesting, and I particularly enjoyed the first few chapters and the conclusion. But this book was as daunting as I expected it to be. And I am just far too dumb, and a product of the 21st century- and I need nonfiction books that have some life stories or jokes thrown in.
c2pizza's review against another edition
5.0
As a child I never liked it when an adult answered a question I asked with, "Because that's how it is" or some similar aversion. Thankfully, Darwin wasn't satisfied either.
Darwin's greatest achievement here isn't the incredible collection of evidence he amassed and organized, nor is it simply the idea of evolution by natural selection (although both are worthy of 5 star reviews and a place in every science textbook on their own). His greatest achievement is fundamentally changing how we view the world and our place in it to a magnitude equal to or surpassing Copernicus's revolution. The idea that slight changes over time are as powerful a tool to build from the bottom up what we once thought could only come by magic from the top down is truly, as Dan Dennett puts it, dangerous. It undermines the legitimacy of top-heavy power structures, it calls into question core assumptions we've made about the world, and most importantly it provides us with a method to change the world (hopefully for the better and hopefully not so gradually if it is for the better).
Darwin's greatest achievement here isn't the incredible collection of evidence he amassed and organized, nor is it simply the idea of evolution by natural selection (although both are worthy of 5 star reviews and a place in every science textbook on their own). His greatest achievement is fundamentally changing how we view the world and our place in it to a magnitude equal to or surpassing Copernicus's revolution. The idea that slight changes over time are as powerful a tool to build from the bottom up what we once thought could only come by magic from the top down is truly, as Dan Dennett puts it, dangerous. It undermines the legitimacy of top-heavy power structures, it calls into question core assumptions we've made about the world, and most importantly it provides us with a method to change the world (hopefully for the better and hopefully not so gradually if it is for the better).
carrkicksdoor's review against another edition
5.0
Though I knew better, I think, given an evangelical background, I originally expected to open up this book and find the devil. I did certainly expect a dry, dusty scientific tome.
What I found was a beautifully written, exquisitely reasoned celebration of life on earth from a man who was not denying a Creator, but who was offering an alternative point of view by which the Creator might have made his Creation. Darwin is very careful to be respectful of God (he himself was an Anglican who is buried in Westminster Abbey), and his enthusiasm for creation is evident in every passage--an enthusiasm which makes this an incredibly readable work.
What I found was a beautifully written, exquisitely reasoned celebration of life on earth from a man who was not denying a Creator, but who was offering an alternative point of view by which the Creator might have made his Creation. Darwin is very careful to be respectful of God (he himself was an Anglican who is buried in Westminster Abbey), and his enthusiasm for creation is evident in every passage--an enthusiasm which makes this an incredibly readable work.
nucleareaction's review against another edition
3.0
Took me forever to read, but I feel a better person for it. As expected, it appealed to every scientific cell in my body. It makes sense through logic and evidence.
sometimesdazai's review against another edition
3.0
The best way to obtain the truth is to read from the primary source.
In the 1st edition of The Origin of Species, Darwin did not use the word 'evolution' until the very end. Instead, he referred to 'descent with modification', a phrase that summarized his view of life. While in this new edition, the word 'evolution' was used several times with the meaning of -knitted by me- 'the potentiality of species to change through an internal force or tendency, by nature or domestication'.
"Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide.
I have retained in the foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere, several sentences which imply that naturalists believe in the separate creation of each species; and I have been much ensured for having thus expressed myself.
Therefore, on the principle of natural selection with divergence of character, it does not seem incredible that, from such low and intermediate form, both animals and plants may have been developed; and, if we admit this, we must likewise admit that all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth may be descended from some one primordial form. But this inference is chiefly grounded on analogy and it is immaterial whether or not it be accepted."
Judulnya: Ketika Charles Darwin Galau
p.s.: tak usah serius-serius amat ;))
In the 1st edition of The Origin of Species, Darwin did not use the word 'evolution' until the very end. Instead, he referred to 'descent with modification', a phrase that summarized his view of life. While in this new edition, the word 'evolution' was used several times with the meaning of -knitted by me- 'the potentiality of species to change through an internal force or tendency, by nature or domestication'.
"Analogy would lead me one step further, namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide.
I have retained in the foregoing paragraphs, and elsewhere, several sentences which imply that naturalists believe in the separate creation of each species; and I have been much ensured for having thus expressed myself.
Therefore, on the principle of natural selection with divergence of character, it does not seem incredible that, from such low and intermediate form, both animals and plants may have been developed; and, if we admit this, we must likewise admit that all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth may be descended from some one primordial form. But this inference is chiefly grounded on analogy and it is immaterial whether or not it be accepted."
Judulnya: Ketika Charles Darwin Galau
p.s.: tak usah serius-serius amat ;))