On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin · 1st edition
About this work
Darwin's first edition is the founding text of the theory this site examines, and still the best statement of its central argument. Darwin wrote it as "one long argument": from variation under domestication, to variation and competition in nature, to natural selection, and then to the difficulties he expected readers to raise, which he answered chapter by chapter.
Reading it fairly. Darwin wrote before genetics, before radiometric dating and before most of the fossil record now known. We grade the arguments he actually made with the evidence he actually offered. We don't mark him down for not knowing later science, and we don't credit the book with evidence it didn't contain. Where later findings bear on a claim, the evaluation says so separately.
- Author
- Charles Darwin
- Published
- 1859
- Edition
- 1st edition
- Written for
- General readers
- Licence
- Public domain. The full text is loaded from the source below and evaluated section by section.
- Read it
- gutenberg.org ↗
- Pillars
- Natural Selection, Common Descent, The Fossil Record, Micro → Macro
Contents
This book hasn't been evaluated yet. Evaluating all 15 sections, then judging the work as a whole, costs about $3 in AI processing (our estimate). Reader support is what pays for it.
- s01Introductionabout 1,700 words
- s02Chapter I. Variation Under Domesticationabout 11,627 words
- s03Chapter II. Variation Under Natureabout 4,906 words
- s04Chapter III. Struggle For Existenceabout 5,947 words
- s05Chapter IV. Natural Selectionabout 15,710 words
- s06Chapter V. Laws Of Variationabout 12,092 words
- s07Chapter VI. Difficulties On Theoryabout 11,072 words
- s08Chapter VII. Instinctabout 11,526 words
- s09Chapter VIII. Hybridismabout 10,193 words
- s10Chapter IX. On The Imperfection Of The Geological Recordabout 9,776 words
- s11Chapter X. On The Geological Succession Of Organic Beingsabout 10,360 words
- s12Chapter XI. Geographical Distributionabout 11,319 words
- s13Chapter XII. Geographical Distribution—Continuedabout 8,558 words
- s14Chapter XIII. Mutual Affinities Of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryologyabout 14,571 words
- s15Chapter XIV. Recapitulation And Conclusionabout 9,629 words
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