In honor of Darwin Day, I would like to offer one of the best reasons I’ve yet read for taking the time to read Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
From the Preface to David N. Reznick’s The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species:
But I am aiming for a bigger audience than students of life sciences. Reading the Origin can teach anyone at any level important lessons about the structure of science and the meaning of the word theory. […] Reading the Origin can also highlight the role that that evolutionary theory played in shaping the future development of science.
If by chance you have not yet read Origin, or even if you have and would like to do so again to increase not only your understanding of it but your understanding of the larger ideas for which it served at the catalyst, I heartily encourage you to do so simultaneously with Reznick’s book. Not only does Reznick offer superbly helpful elaboration on Darwin’s words, but perhaps more importantly he places Darwin’s book in the context of its time.
