Brain Fuel

Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species presented one of the most important ideas in the history of human thought. This course will explore the life of Darwin himself, considering his personal qualities, his family life, and his general perspectives on nature. No one accepted as ardently as Darwin that the book of nature was about the cumulative powers of the small. It was a perspective he adopted whether he was trying to understand earthworms, barnacles, or the great sweep of species change through time. As a person, he was kind, generous, egalitarian, and disturbed by slavery. An adoring father of ten children, he missed the reading of his first paper on the evolution of organisms at Royal Society in London because he was overcome with grief over the recent death of his infant son. Darwin’s impact over the last 150 years could not be overstated. His ideas have provided the central organizing core for modern biology. By exploring his life and his ways of thinking, we can gain some insight into the legacy of this important scientist.