Ebook by Richard W. Paul, Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge, suggests reading 1 book each month by writers and thinking from long ago. Purpose is to remove your thinking from present day biases and social influences.
1. My selected Ebook for Feb/March 2011 is:
On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
- In Chapter 2 discussion about different classes. I needed to see definitions.
These examples show my understanding of the different classes:
Life
Domain
Kingdom
Phylum
Classes
Orders
Families
Genera Walnuts, Hickories, Quercus(Oak), etc.
Species Red Oak, Black Oak, etc,
Varieties
Chapter 4: Natural Selection, competitionChapter 5: Laws of Variation - Laws of intheritance
- Tendencey to reversion
- Hybrids - crosses of species
Darwin writes: It makes the works of God a mere mockery and deception; I would almost at soon believe with the old and ignorant cosmogonists, that fossil shells had never lived, but had been created in stone so as to mock the shells now living on the sea-shore.
Steady accumulation through natural selection result in modifications of structure.
Chapter 6: Difficulties in Theory.
- Upland geese with webbed feet
- Ground woodpeckers
- Diving thrushes
- Petrels with habits of auks
- Metamorphoses of organ functions are possible
- Natural selection will not necessarily produce absolute perfection
- "Natura non facit saltum" = Nature does not take jumps
Chapter 7. Instinct.Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin.
Instincts graduated.
Aphides and ants.
Instincts variable.
Domestic instincts, their origin.
Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees.
Slave-making ants.
Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct.
Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts.
Neuter or sterile insects.
Chapter 8. Hybridism.Sterility of first crosses and hybrids.
Laws governing the sterility of hybrids.
Causes of sterility of first crosses and of hybrids.
Fertility of varieties.
Hybrids and mongrels
Chapter 9. On the Imperfection of the Geological Record.
Absence of intermediate varieties at the present day.
Nature of extinct intermediate varieties.
Vast lapse of time.
Poorness of our palaeontological collections.
Intermittence of geological formations.
Absence of intermediate varieties in any one formation.
Sudden appearance of groups of species.
Species sudden appearance in the lowest known fossiliferous strata.
Chapter 10. On the Geological Succession of Organic Beings.
Slow and succesive appearance of new species.
Different rates of change.
Species once lost do not reappear.
Groups of species follow same general rules in appearance and disappearance as do
single species.
Extinction.
Simultaneous changes in forms of life throughout the world.
Affinities of extinct species to each other and to living species.
State of development of ancient forms.
Succession of same types within the same areas.
Chapter 11. Geographical Distribution
Present distribution vs physical conditions differences.
Importance of barriers.
Productions of the same continent.
Centres of creation.
Means of dispersal.
Dispersal during the Glacial period.
Chapter 12. Geographical Distribution -continued.
Distribution of fresh-water productions.
The inhabitants of oceanic islands.
Mammals.
Relation of inhabitants of islands to those of nearest mainland.
Colonisation from the nearest source with subsequent modification.
Chapter 13. Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology:
Embryology: Rudimentary Organs.
- Classification, Natural system.
- Morphology
- Embryology, laws of.
- Rudimenatary Organs; their origin explained.
Chapter 14: Recapitulation and Conclusion.
Dificulties on the theory of Natural Selection.
General and special circumstances in its favor.
Causes of general belief in the immutability of species.
How far the theory of natural selection may be extended.
Effects of its adoption on the study of Natural history.
Concluding remarks.
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