Reevaluating Female “Inferiority”: Sarah Grand Versus Charles Darwin

The figure of darwin hovered like a specter over the fin de siècle, not only the Darwin of the explosive 1859 On the Origin of Species that redirected evolutionary thinking but also the author of the 1871 Descent of Man — a less heralded work, though generating equally significant repercussions with its pronouncements on the intellectual capacities of the sexes. By linking a perceived mental inferiority of women to the mechanism of evolution, Darwin seemingly brought scientific proof to support a cultural truism. In so doing, he reinforced Victorian strictures that maintained women in a subservient state, which now could be justified on the basis of biological determinism. Yet Sarah Grand's popular 1897 novel, The Beth Book, contests the Darwinian verities, questioning the scientists' specious conclusions about sex-linked traits and identifying culture as an equally significant force determining the mental dispositions of the sexes.

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Charles Darwin i dansk litteratur med særlig henblik på Johannes V. Jensens forfatterskab

Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia ◽

10.1515/fsp-2016-0013 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 183-200

Author(s):

Sven Hakon Rossel

Keyword(s):

Role Model ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Literary Text ◽

Positive Role ◽

Philosophical Debate ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Positive Role Model ◽

Nobel Prizewinner ◽

Descent Of Man

Abstract Charles Darwin’s theories were already introduced in Scandinavia in the early 1860s, whereas his two major works, On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871), were translated by Danish writer J.P. Jacobsen in the 1870s. Jacobsen acts as an important intermediary both as a scientist and, probably, the first Danish writer whose work is influenced by Darwin’s thoughts. But also in the writings of other authors of the time, e.g. Herman Bang, at least the name “Darwin” infrequently occurs as is also the case with the symbolist writers of the 1890s, e.g. Viggo Stuckenberg and Sophus Claussen. However, not until after 1900 does Darwin serve as an artistic inspiration and a positive role model. This happens in an overpowering manner in the fictional and essayist works of the Danish Nobel Prizewinner Johannes V. Jensen. Jensen’s Darwinism was not countered until the so-called “livsanskuelsesdebat” - a philosophical debate - during the 1920s with the eloquent poet and dramatist Helge Rode as his acute opponent. Hereafter, Darwin’s role in Danish literature decreases significantly unless one wishes to see Peter Høeg’s novel from 1996, Kvinden og aben (The Man and the Ape) as the last example of a Darwin-influence on a literary text.

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The Loss of Rational Design

Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement ◽

10.1017/s1358246100008869 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 235-257

Author(s):

Friedel Weinert

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Rational Design ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

British Association ◽

Human Origins ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Descent Of Man

Charles Darwin published hisOrigin of Specieson November 24, 1859. Whatever hurdle the theory of natural selection faced in its struggle for acceptance, its impact on human self-images was almost immediate. Well before Darwin had the chance of applying the principle of natural selection to human origins—in hisDescent of Man(1871)—his contemporaries quickly and rashly drew the inference to man's descent from the ape. Satirical magazines likePunchdelighted in depicting Darwin with his imposing head on an apish body. At the Oxford meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (June 1860), Bishop Wilberforce asked T. H. Huxley triumphantly whether he traced his ancestry to the ape on his grandfather's or grandmother's side. A wave of evolutionary texts swept over Europe (L. Biichner, E. Haeckel, T. H. Huxley, J. B. Lamarck, C. Lyell, F. Rolle, E. Tyler and K. Vogt). Written in English, French and German, they all had a common focus: the place of humans in a Darwinian world, including religion and morality.

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The Loss of Rational Design

Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement ◽

10.1017/s1358246105056110 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 56 ◽

pp. 20-21

Author(s):

Friedel Weinert

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Rational Design ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

British Association ◽

Human Origins ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Descent Of Man

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Evolutionary Ethics: Healthy Prospect or Last Infirmity?

Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume ◽

10.1080/00455091.1988.10715944 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 27-73 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Michael Ruse

Keyword(s):

Charles Darwin ◽

Evolutionary Process ◽

The United States ◽

Evolutionary Ethics ◽

Evolutionary Approach ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Herbert Spencer ◽

Adequate Understanding ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

Descent Of Man

Evolutionary ethics, the idea that the evolutionary process contains the basis for a full and adequate understanding of human moral nature, is an old and disreputable notion. It was popularized in the 19th century by the English general man of science, Herbert Spencer, who began advocating an evolutionary approach to ethical understanding, even before Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859 (Spencer 1857, 1892). Although it was never regarded with much enthusiasm by professional philosophers, thanks to Spencer’s advocacy the evolutionary approach to ethics soon gained wide popularity, both in Britain and towards the end of the century, even more in the United States of America (Ruse 1986; Russett 1976). It became transformed into a whole sociopolitical doctrine, known somewhat inaccurately as ‘Social Darwinism.’ (Scholars have long debated as to whether Darwin himself was truly a Social Darwinian, and the answer seems to depend on which of his works you read. If you look at the Origin of Species, he certainly is not. On the other hand, if you look at the Descent of Man, there are good reasons for thinking that he was not unsympathetic to the idea.

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The Origins of Psychosis and “The Descent of Man”

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/s0007125000296530 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 159 (S14) ◽

pp. 76-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

T. J. Crow

Keyword(s):

Charles Darwin ◽

Great Apes ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Descent Of Man

In 1871, Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. The first part of this volume made explicit the conclusion that had been implicit in the Origin of Species published 12 years earlier, that man indeed was descended from the great apes.

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Descent of Darwin: race, sex, and human nature

BJHS Themes ◽

10.1017/bjt.2021.9 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-8

Author(s):

Erika Lorraine Milam ◽

Suman Seth

Keyword(s):

Human Nature ◽

Women's Education ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Aesthetic Judgement ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Biological Importance ◽

Women's Equality ◽

History Of ◽

Descent Of Man

Abstract In 1871, Charles Darwin published Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, a text that extended, elaborated and completed his On the Origin of Species (1859). When he had published Origin, Darwin sought, albeit unsuccessfully, to skirt controversy; in Descent he waded into the fray on near-innumerable issues. Readers could find explicit the claim that humans had descended from apes, in addition to explorations of the similarities and apparent gulfs between ‘man’ and other animals. They also found Darwin's opinions on issues ranging from the origin and hierarchy of races to the question of women's education, from the source of altruistic bravery to the biological importance of aesthetic judgement, from his views on what his cousin would term ‘eugenics’ to the history of monogamy. In the last 150 years these ideas have been variously contested, rejected and recovered, so that the shadow of Descent extended into debates over the development of languages, the evolution of human sexualities, the ongoing possibilities of eugenics and the question of women's equality. In this volume, appearing during the sesquicentennial of the text's first appearance, one finds papers dedicated to all of these themes and more, laying out the roots and fruits of Darwin's Descent.

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Sexual Selection

Evolutionary Ecology ◽

10.1093/oso/9780195131543.003.0022 ◽

2001 ◽

Author(s):

Udo M. Savalli

Keyword(s):

Sexual Selection ◽

Charles Darwin ◽

Future Research ◽

Origin Of Species ◽

Female Preferences ◽

Evolutionary Changes ◽

Males And Females ◽

Worker Castes ◽

Descent Of Man

When Charles Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species (1859), he issued a challenge to potential critics: “If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not be produced through natural selection”. Darwin went even further by identifying several traits that seemed especially problematical: the sterile worker castes of social insects and extravagant ornaments that appear to benefit potential predators more than their bearers. It is this latter problem and Darwin’s solution to it—sexual selection—that are the focus of this chapter. I begin by providing a very brief historical overview of sexual selection, focusing on the initial controversies and its resurgence in the 1970s. I then provide an overview of the conditions that lead to sexual selection and the kinds of traits that are favored by it. Sexual selection usually involves evolutionary changes in both males and females. Thus, I first address the evolution of extravagant male traits (it is typically males that exhibit such traits). Since female choice is one of the mechanisms that can lead to the evolution of extravagant male traits, I also address the evolution of female preferences. Finally, I will identify those areas of the field that are the most controversial, unresolved, and promising for future research. This review is, of necessity, brief and selective. I have tried to cite recent reviews rather than the extensive primary literature to provide an easy entry point into the literature. Readers wishing for more detailed treatment would do well by starting with Andersson’s (1994) excellent book. Darwin introduced the concept of sexual selection in On the Origin of Species (1859) and greatly elaborated the idea in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). Darwin defined sexual selection as depending “not on a struggle for existence, but on a struggle between males for possession of the females”.

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