UGFN1000

In Dialogue with Nature

與自然對話

Dr. Li Ming, Kenneth

Lecturer
General Education Foundation Programme
Office of University General Education
 Part I Scientific revolution

Galileo
Plato’s Euclid’s Copernican Kepler Newton
form Elements (1473-1543) Etc. (1642-1726)

Aristotle's Medieval Modern

theories physics science

Part II – Text 3

? ?
Darwin
(1809-1882)
 Course Design of UGFN1000
• Part 1. Human exploration of the physical universe
• Part 2. Human exploration of the biological world
– Text 3: Darwin, On the Origin of Species
• Part 3. Our understanding of human understanding

Core Question
What is the implication of the origin of species?
 uReply
A) Created by a superbeing (e.g. a god)
B) Created by an intelligent being
C) Evolved from a common ancestor shared with apes and monkeys
D) Created the common ancestor and evolve into human being

Others please specify: ____________

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Social Background

• Creationism
• Genesis

 God created species

 Concerning the origin of
species is unnecessary
 Nature is unchanged and
species are fixed
 Discovery of new species
 Social Background

• Creationism
o Genesis
• The City of God, 413
o City of God vs. Earthly City
• An young earth
o 4004 BC

James Ussher St. Augustine of Hippo

(1581-1656) (354-430)
Social Background

• The fermenting period: 18th and early 19th CE

– Enlightenment 啟蒙
– Domestic breeding: agriculture and livestock
地質學
– Geology and fossils
– Age of Earth
博物學
– Sailing and naturalist
– Classification
Charles Darwin 達爾文
(1809-1882)
• An English naturalist 博物學家
• Grandpa and father were physician
• Oct. 1825 (16 years old): studied medicine at University of
Edinburgh, but later lost interest (quit U!)
• Oct. 1827: studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge University
and planned to be a parson
• Starting to get serious about natural history

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 • While studying at Cambridge, Darwin became a
naturalist, followed botanist and geologist J. S. Henslow.
• Henslow encouraged him to travel on a British warship,
航⾏
HMS Beagle小獵犬號, went for a 5-year voyage (Dec
1831- Oct 1836) with Captain Robert FitzRoy.
• Darwin: 22 years old
FitzRoy: 26 years old

Robert FitzRoy John S. Henslow

(1805-1865) (1796-1861)
 (Dec 1831- Oct 1836)

“The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my 10
whole career…” (Autobiography, p. 64)
The Inception of the
Evolutionary Theory

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Charles Lyell 萊爾 (1797-1875)

• British lawyer and geologist

• Principles of Geology, 1830–33
• Uniformitarianism 統⼀主義
– A uniformly slow-changing Earth
• Age of the earth >300 million years
– C.f. In 1862 physicist Lord Kelvin published the age of Earth at
between 20 to 100 million years.

“I really think my books come half out of Lyell’s brain…”

Charles Darwin
 Thomas Malthus 馬爾薩斯
(1766-1834)
• English cleric and scholar
• Influential in political economy and demography
• Essay on the Principle of Population 《人口論》

“…the power of population is indefinitely greater than the

power in the earth to produce subsistence for men.
Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical
ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio.”
Thomas Malthus, 1798
An Essay on the Principle of Population

https://www.thegeographeronline.net/3-resource-stewardship.html
Biogeographical Distribution
Darwin’s finches
A detective story follows …
• A uniformly slow-changing Earth
• If unchecked, growth of population > growth of resources
• Different habitats, different features and functions of species
• …?

What happened to the lives in the past to

explain the present forms of lives?

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 Darwin’s notebook (Nov 1838)
“Three principles will account for all
(1) Grandchildren like grandfathers
(2) Tendency to small change especially with physical change
(3) Great fertility in proportion to support of parents”
Darwin’s notebook
(c.f. On the Origin of Species 1859)
(mid-July 1837)
In the 22 years…

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A detective story follows …
• A uniformly slow-changing Earth
• If unchecked, growth of population > growth of resources
• Different habitats, different features and functions of species
• Variations under domestication and nature
形態化 殘餘器官 胚胎學
• Fossil Record, Morphology, Vestigial organ, Embryology
• …

After 22 years hard work, Darwin wanted to

collect more evidence, BUT…

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Alfred Russel Wallace 華萊士 (1823-1913)
• British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist.
• Leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species
• 1858 "On the Tendency of Varieties to depart indefinitely from the
Original Type”

Darwin-Wallace Medal
 On the Origin of Species

by Means of Natural Selection

or the
Preservation of Favorable Races in the Struggle for Life

(1859, 1st edition)

(1872, 6th edition)

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Implications?
• The human origin
• The Role of human beings
• Social Darwinism
• Eugenics 優⽣學
• Racism
• Scientific racism

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 Table of contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 Variation under Domestication
Chapter 2 Variation under Nature
Chapter 3 Struggle for Existence
Chapter 4 Natural Selection (Text 3)
Chapter 5 Laws of Variation
Chapter 6 Difficulties on Theory
Chapter 7 Instinct
Chapter 8 Hybridism
Chapter 9 On the Imperfection of the Geological Record
Chapter 10 On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings
Chapter 11 Geographical Distribution
Chapter 12 Geographical Distribution – continued
Chapter 13 Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs.
Chapter 14 Recapitulation and Conclusion
“This whole volume is one long argument… Descent with modification via natural selection”
 Key Parts in Text 3
• Natural selection [Para 1]
• Natural selection vs. artificial selection [Para 4-]
• The importance of time [Para 5]
• Sexual selection [Para 10-]
• Action of natural selection [Para 13-]
• Extinction [Para 39-]
• Divergence of Character [Para 42-] *a challenging read…
• Tree of life [Para 50-] detailed descriptions,
• **Summary of Chapter [Para 68-] very long and
complicated sentences…
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???

???
Westminster Abbey
英國倫敦西敏寺

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 Questions to Ponder
(Q1-4: refer to the text)
1. What is natural selection?
2. What are the differences between natural, sexual and artificial selections?
3. Why did Darwin discuss artificial selection in his book?
4. How did Darwin view the classification of organisms?
5. Regarding natural selection, what does “selection” imply?
6. What is the relationship between naturel selection and evolution?
7. Could Darwin explain the origin of life?
8. “Human was evolved from chimpanzees” - do you agree?
9. Do you share a common ancestor with a fruit fly?
10. Does evolutionary theory disprove creationism?
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11. Knowing the origin of life… so?
 Whiteboard Animations
** Common misconceptions **
Transformation vs. Evolution
https://youtu.be/tCNCQx191RA
[5 minutes]

[5 minutes]
Creationism vs. Evolution
https://youtu.be/H5qLmh87HhE
 Reminder

• PASS (optional, today 2:30-3:30 pm, HYS G03)

• Next tutorial
– Discussion on Text 3 Darwin
– Read the text, think about the “questions to ponder ” and be on time!
– LT01-LT02 (public holiday, no tutorial next week, tutorial on 8 Oct)

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