Have we mistakenly given full-credit for the "Theory of Evolution", to the wrong man?

Question

What are your opinions concerning this information?

http://bioweb.cs.earlham.edu/9-12/evolution/HTML/natural.html

"Darwin might never have completed the book if another British scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), had not come up with the same idea in 1858. While living in the Malay Archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, Wallace formulated his theory and wrote it in an essay, which he sent to Darwin. Darwin's fellow scientists persuaded him to let them present his theory and Wallace's essay jointly at a scientific meeting. The presentation excited very little attention, according to the modest Darwin."

"However, the publication of Darwin's book The Origin of Species in 1859 changed biology forever."

The Born Again Mulla…

Why do you use such pointless, ill-mannered, and offensive vulgarity?

I pray that one day you will learn to communicate properly. Have a great day :)

Answer 1

This is a possible reason Wallace gets only " honorable mention " many times. In 1869 he sent Darwin a manuscript that basically posited evolutionary processes ended at the neck and our brain was of divine origin. Darwin wrote in the margins; no!! He sent Wallace a letter that said, and I paraphrase, " I hope you have not murdered this child of ours ".
This concept of Wallace's, who embarrassingly chased after spirits in later life, has given biological neuro-science and behavioral science much trouble since then. Social science is still under this mistaken concept.
Other than that, Darwin was in actuality quite a number of years ahead of Wallace, he just was slow to publish. Wallace was extremely brilliant to come up with a correlative theory as quickly as he did. For some years after, until the 1869 fiasco, he out Darwined Darwin in many evolutionarily advanced concepts.

Answer 2

There are some historical sources that say they came up with the theory independently (nearly) of each other, in the late 1830's and into the 1840's. There are others that say Wallace was thinking about it, visited Darwin and saw the many specimen he had brought back from the Galapagos (and other parts of the world), and started debating the points of natural selection with colleagues and other scientists throughout the 1840's, then wrote the paper to push Darwin into action in the 1850's. In either case, Wallace is still acknowledged as an early evolutionary pioneer, but, as another post pointed out, Darwin published the first book, and he gets (and probably deserves, for doing most of the original fieldwork) the lion's share of the credit.

Edit--thanks secretsause and jonmcn49--I'm a little rusty on my history and didn't get my point across very well.

Answer 3

Well it is just how science worked in those days, the first to publish gets the credit.

In fact it was the very letter that Wallace sent that pushed Darwin to publish the Origin of Species.

Some text books now acknowledge this fact by stating in the title to a section: Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution.

Both scientists had the same idea, and both contributed to formulating the theory of evolution. It was just that Darwin beat Wallace to it when it came to publishing their findings. Note that Darwin did not plagerise anything, he himself formulated his theory after returning from the Galapagos but didn't put pen to paper until several years later.

Answer 4

No. There is no real mistake. This is all well-known history, and the article you linked explains it well:

Darwin was working on his theory for about 20 years, published a summary of it in 1844, and was exchanging plenty of correspondence about it with colleagues. But he knew it would cause trouble for the person who presented it and was making sure the presentation of it was solid.

By 1858 Wallace was coming to the same conclusions (although his formulation differed from Darwin's in a few key ways), but there is plenty of documentation that Darwin thought of a lot of it as far back as 1842, and probably earlier in some of his notes on the Beagle in the 1830's.

So there is no question of Darwin's priority. Wallace's notes just served as a wakeup call to Darwin to stop putzing around with his book and publish it. Darwin was actually fairly generous in agreeing to co-publish his theory (but not his book) with Wallace, and Wallace himself was grateful (they became friends).

But history (correctly, IMO) credits Darwin with priority.

The history of science and mathematics is full of discoveries like this. (For example Newton and Lebniz are often both credited with coming up with the concept of calculus independently, at the same time.) This shows that a scientific discovery is often not just the product of one person, but something that is ripe for discovery based on the general knowledge of the day. Several scientists reading the current literature, looking at the current evidence, using the current methods, and thinking about it with enough clarity, can start to come up with the same idea at the same time. The theory of natural selection was just such a 'ripe' theory ... if Darwin hadn't have come up with it, Wallace or someone else would have.

That's why we call them 'discoveries' rather than 'inventions'.

This is a fact often lost on people who attack evolution as if Darwin 'invented' it ... and so discrediting Darwin would 'uninvent' it. They use the the descpicable tactic of trying to discredit Darwin personally ... even coming up with the ridiculous (and truly slimy) "Darwin recanted on his deathbed" story ... as if Darwin's retraction of the theory would "undo" it. Besides being people with no integrity or honor, these people don't understand science whatsoever.

Answer 5

Well I'm sure Darwin expanded on Wallace's idea, since he wrote this big long book and Wallace wrote only an essay.

Darwin also gets credit for the book itself, which even today is surprisingly easy to read and understand, and very persuasive to those without ideological blinders on.

Answer 6

actually Darwin came up with the theory in 1838 following his voyages on the Beagle. google 'transmutation of species'.
Darwin kept the idea to himself and close friends trying to avoid the political repurcusions.
Wallace sent his essay to Darwin because of Darwin's similar view.
Darwin agreed to publish in collaboration with Wallace partly to avoid being the sole target of the retribution he expected from the scientific and religious communities.

Answer 7

I don't know about you but I learned about both in high school. Maybe among laymen Darwin gets all the credit.. but most biologists know better.

Answer 8

Well, I think they were both good guys and all. And I think they both were sincere, but it always comes down to that first little "whatever" from which everything else came to be. Where did it come from???????