Robert J. Richards

I'm a big fan of the "Cambridge Companion" series, and find them helpful to bring me up to speed quickly on recent academic thought surrounding major works. This volume is distance from the Cambridge Companion to Darwin, which focuses more on his overall thought, whereas this book focuses just on the Origin.

That being said, this volume does address theological and philosophical implications of Darwin's thought as manifest in the Origin. My two favorite essays were Brooke's "The Origin and the Question of Religion" and Lewens' "The Origin and Philosophy". As several essays in the volume note -- especially the last one by Kohler and Kohler, "The Origin of Species as a Book" -- Darwin's Origin went through several editions, with various edits and editions and corrections with each. Brooke's essay notes "The first changes that he made to his book, however, were to add to, rather than subtract from, references to a Creator. He evidently wished to offer reassurance that his theory did not contravene a sophisticated understanding of what 'creation' might mean" (264). The essays are even-handed in issues of religion and philosophy, and lack the neoatheist bloviating of Richard Dawkins and his ilk.

Interestingly, I purchased this book on amazon.com not once, but twice. The first time, as I was finishing p. 184, I realized that pages 185-186 were completely missing! I was able to return it, and Amazon in fact sent me a replacement before I made my return. The second version was error free (from a pagination perspective).… (meer)