Evolution, Old & New.

When the theory of evolution was reshaping how humanity understood itself, Samuel Butler entered the fray with characteristic independence and combativeness. Evolution, Old and New is his argument that the story of evolutionary thought did not begin with Darwin, and that older thinkers had grasped something Darwin's account risked losing.

What it's about

Butler surveys the history of evolutionary ideas, giving prominence to earlier naturalists and thinkers, among them Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, whom he felt had been unjustly overshadowed. He sets their views against Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, questioning whether selection alone could account for the purposeful complexity of life, and pressing the case for the role of effort, habit, and a kind of directed development.

Themes

The book turns on the meaning of design and purpose in nature, the adequacy of chance and selection as explanations, and the proper credit due to earlier scientific thinkers. It reflects Butler's broader preoccupation with intelligence and intention in living things, and his suspicion of a purely mechanical account of life.

Why it still matters

As a dissenting voice from within the great evolutionary debate, the book illuminates the range of nineteenth-century thought on the question and the controversies that surrounded Darwin's ideas. Butler's challenge to natural selection, and his defence of the earlier evolutionists, make it a valuable document in the history of science and a lively example of independent intellectual argument.

Who it's for

Readers interested in the history of evolutionary thought, in Samuel Butler's restless mind, and in the wider Victorian debates over science and purpose. It appeals to anyone who enjoys watching a sharp, contrarian thinker take on the orthodoxy of his age.