Bøger af Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is regarded as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution. It was an essay which Wallace sent in 1858 to Darwin (to whom he had dedicated his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago) which impelled Darwin to publish an article on his own long-pondered theory simultaneously with that of Wallace. As a travelling naturalist and collector in the Far East and South America, Wallace already inclined towards the Lamarckian theory of transmutation of species, and his own researches convinced him of the reality of evolution. On the publication of On the Origin of Species, Wallace became one of its most prominent advocates. This second, corrected, edition (1871) of a series of essays published in book form in 1870, shows the development of his thinking about evolution, and emphasises his admiration for, and support of, Darwin's work.

The nineteenth-century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace was a major influence on Darwin's theory of natural selection. He was later moved by a variety of personal experiences to examine the concept of spirituality, but his exploration into the potential for compatibility between spiritualism and natural selection alienated him from the scientific community. The three controversial essays in this 1875 book attempt to reinforce his beliefs and validate his claims. The first, written in 1871 and read before The Dialectic Society, reconsiders the credibility or incredibility of miracles. The second, 'The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural', had been published in a secularist periodical several years earlier, and 'A Defence of Modern Spiritualism' appeared in the Fortnightly Review shortly before this book was published. Wallace's book takes the modern reader to the heart of the raging debates engendered by Darwin, many of which continue over a century later.