Full transcript
0:00The A to Z of isms... Darwinism.
0:03The philosopher Daniel Dennett
0:05described Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, Darwinism,
0:08as "the single best idea anyone has ever had".
0:13It certainly was a brilliant one,
0:14though Darwin wasn't the only one to come up with it.
0:17The naturalist and explorer Alfred Russel Wallace
0:20put forward a very similar explanation of the biological data
0:23independently of him at around the same time.
0:27But once Darwin published his book, On The Origin Of Species, in 1859,
0:30the theory of evolution was ever-after linked with his name.
0:35It was a radical idea
0:36because, although Darwin didn't spell this out,
0:39people soon realised it entailed the view that human beings
0:42were just another species in the animal kingdom
0:45and shared a common ancestor with apes.
0:48For Victorian England, this was quite a bombshell.
0:51As a young man,
0:52Darwin had spent five years as a naturalist on a round the world trip
0:55aboard HMS Beagle.
0:56He'd gradually come to realise that species change over time -
1:00they evolve.
1:02Imagine you're a finch on a Galapagos island.
1:05There are lots of plants with seeds, but not much else to eat.
1:08Your bill is a good shape for cracking them open.
1:11Lucky you.
1:12That's probably just the result of a variation you find within a species.
1:16You happen to have a beak that allows you to eat seeds.
1:18Others aren't so fortunate.
1:20You survive and reproduce,
1:22and pass that trait on to some of your offspring.
1:24The offspring that have beaks like yours flourish.
1:26The same thing happens in the next generation.
1:28Gradually, over many thousands of years,
1:31the finches on this island that survive
1:32become better adapted to the available foodstuff.
1:35Your type of beak predominates.
1:37On another island, the main diet is prickly pear,
1:40and the finches that survive and flourish there
1:42have very different shaped beaks from yours.
1:44Not only do members of a species change as a result of such evolution,
1:48but also entirely new species emerge.
1:52Today's Darwinism
1:53is rather different from Charles Darwin's Darwinism though.
1:56We now have a much better understanding
1:58of the biology of heredity than he did.
2:00Darwinism today is a powerful combination
2:03of Darwin's general theory with modern genetics.
2:06Darwinism is central to understanding how we came to be what we are.
2:11It's possibly the most important ism yet.
2:17Thanks for watching! :)
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