今年２００９年は、進化生物学の生みの親、チャールズ・ダーウィンの生誕２００年、「種の起源」出版１５０年という記念の年でした。そのおめでたい年に彼の故郷を旅してみたいという希望をかなえることはとうとう出来ませんでした。なにもかも世界的大不況のせい、といってしまえばまぁそれはそうですが、今更そんなことをいってみても仕方ありますまい。
チャールズ・ダーウィンに捧げる小文を書いてみたので、せっかくですから掲載しておきます。ちなみにこのエッセイは、ジオス講師のアリエルに添削してもらってあります。細かい間違いはあるけれど、「（最後のパラグラフを除けば）よく書けている」とお褒めの言葉をもらいました。その最後のパラグラフは削除してあります。
Charles Darwin's heritage and me
Frankly speaking, I disliked Charles Darwin when I was in my twenties. He did not seem to be a genius at all. I thought that not his own ability, but the Zeitgeist of the 19th centry Victorian England has allowed him to discover the theory of evolution. He was merely a very lucky main in my mind; He happened to be born when and where the condition were ripe for the formation of the theory.
However, I have been finding out over the last decade how stupid I had been. As a genuine Victorian gentleman, he was modest and understated his own intelligence in his autobiography. I did not know the circumstance. I took his words at face value without being aware of the hidden truth.
The more I learn about him, the more I respect in him. He was a true naturalist and philosopher at the same time. His interests were diverse; not only in living animals and plants, but also in geology, biogeography and even the methodology of biology; that is the philosophy of science. Moreover, he made great contributions to most of these fields.
The influence of his theory and thought is truely overwhelming. He is one of the three 19th century's thinkers who have given a definite direction to the last and current century's thoughts and ideologies; the other two being Marx and Freud. That we call a prominent biologist a Darwin of the 20th or 21st century clearly shows that he has been truely influential to us.
Of course, it does not mean that he did not make any mistake, or that the theory of evolution has not been developed after his death. At first, he did not know the mechanisms of the reproduction and inheritance because they were disclosed in the early 20th centruy. Thus he himself also believed in the theory of the blended inheritance of parents' characters and inheritance of acquired characters which had been popular in his age, but have completely refuted by modern genetics.
In addition, his theory of natural selection also did not remain intact. Its existence and operation has been accepted by the majority ob able biologists. However, whether it is really the only driving force of the evolution of living things has not been determined. Some scholars insist that they consider natural selection as a factor of adaptation which the life shows; on the other hand, they think it does not play any significant role in the level of macro evolution. To put it in different words, it can explain how a species has adapted to its surrouding environment for a relatively short geological time span, but cannot explain how large groups of animals (e.g. vertebrate, mollusk and echinoderm) evolved.
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