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  3. The theory of evolution by natural selection was put forward in the 1850s in

The theory of evolution by natural selection was put forward in the 1850s in

游客2023-12-28  28
问题     The theory of evolution by natural selection was put forward in the 1850s independently by two men. One was Charles Darwin; the other was Alfred Russel Wallace. Both men had some scientific background, of course, but at heart both men were naturalists. Darwin had been a medical student at Edinburgh University for two years, before his father who was a wealthy doctor proposed that he might become a clergyman and sent him to Cambridge. Wallace, whose parents were poor and who had left school at 14, had followed courses at Working Men’s Institutes in London and Leicester as a surveyor’s apprentice and pupil teacher.
    The fact is that there are two traditions of explanation that march side by side in the ascent of man. One is the analysis of the physical structure of the world. The other is the study of the processes of life: their delicacy, their diversity, the wavering cycles from life to death in the individual and in the species. And these traditions do not come together until the theory of evolution; because until then there is a paradox which cannot be resolved, which cannot be begun, about life.
    The paradox of the life sciences, which makes them different in kind from physical science, is in the detail of nature everywhere. We see it about us in the birds, the trees, the grass, the snails, in every living thing. It is this, the manifestations of life, its expressions, its forms, are so diverse that they must contain a large element of the accidental. And yet the nature of life is so uniform that it must be constrained by many necessities.
    So it is not surprising that biology as we understand it begins with naturalists in the 18th and 19th centuries: observers of the countryside, bird-watchers, clergymen, doctors, gentlemen of leisure in country houses. I am tempted to call them, simply, "gentlemen in Victorian England", because it cannot be an accident that the theory of evolution is conceived twice by two men living at the same time in the same culture — the culture of Queen Victoria in England.
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答案     自然选择进化论在十九世纪五十年代分别由两个人提出。一位是查尔斯?达尔文，另一位是艾尔弗雷德?塞尔?华莱士。这两个人当然都具有一定的科学背景，但实际上他们都是博物学家。达尔文曾在爱丁堡大学攻读医学两年，后来他的父亲，一个有钱的医生，建议他当牧师，并送他上剑桥大学。华莱士家境贫寒，14岁辍学，后来在给一位测量员当学徒和当小学老师时，他曾在伦敦和莱斯特的工人学院听课。
    事实上，关于人类的进化有两种长期形成的解释方法共存。一种是对世界的自然结构进行分析。另一种是对生命的过程进行研究，研究其微妙处，研究其多样性，研究个体和物种从生到死起伏不定的周期。这两种方法直到进化论出现时才合二为一，这是因为在那以前关于生命存在着一种自相矛盾的现象无法解决，甚至无从解决。
    这种自相矛盾的现象使得生命科学与自然科学具有实质性的区别。这种现象存在于自然界的细微之处，无处不在。在我们周围的鸟、树、草、蜗牛身上，在任何生物身上，都可以看到这种现象。情况是这样的。生命的表现形式，它表现出来的样子，它的外貌如此千差万别，可见它们必定包含着很大的偶然性。而生命的本质又是如此一致，因此它又必定受到许多必然性的制约。
    由此看来，我们所了解的生物学始于十八、十九世纪的博物学家也就不足为奇了。这些博物学家包括在乡间注意观察的人、观鸟者、牧师、医生、乡间宅院里的有闲人士。我禁不住要把他们简单地称为“维多利亚时代的英国绅士”，因为两位先生生活在同一时代，从属于同一种文化——维多利亚女王时代的英国文化——分别认识了进化论, 这不可能是偶然的。
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