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Language: key letters
Summary
How and why language evolved bears on larger questions about the evolution of the human species, and the relationship between man and animals. Darwin presented his views on the development of human speech from animal sounds in The Descent of Man (1871),…
The origin of language
Summary
Darwin started thinking about the origin of language in the late 1830s. The subject formed part of his wide-ranging speculations about the transmutation of species. In his private notebooks, he reflected on the communicative powers of animals, their…
Matches: 6 hits
- … advocate of this natural theological view of language was Friedrich Max Müller , a German …
- … several years after Darwin’s Origin of Species , Max Müller asserted that language was the “one …
- … words out of the notes of birds and the cries of beasts” (Müller 1861, 1: 22-3, 354). Darwin …
- … as warning signs. Darwin addressed the natural theology of Max Müller and others by arguing that …
- … on language . London: Longmans, Green, and Co. Max Müller, Friedrich, 1861. Lectures on the …
- … 1861 . London: Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts. Max Müller, Friedrich. 1864. Lectures …
List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 8 hits
- … T. W. (5) Hildebrand, Friedrich (39) …
- … Ludwig, Camilla (3) Ludwig, Friedrich (3) …
- … Maw, George (29) Max Müller, Friedrich (6) …
- … Rolfe, R. M. (9) Rolle, Friedrich (12) …
- … August (1) Schlesinger, Max (1) …
- … Schmid, Rudolf (1) Schmidt, Max (2) …
- … Japetus (18) Steffen, Max (1) …
- … Tiddeman, R. H. (1) Tiemann, Friedrich (1) …
William B. Bowles
Summary
As a famous figure in the debates surrounding human evolution, Darwin could be something of a lightning rod for eccentric thinkers with their own ideas about his theories. The idea of a “missing link” compelled one such enthusiast to write to him about the…
Fritz Müller
Summary
Fritz Müller, a German who spent most of his life in political exile in Brazil, described Darwin as his second father, and Darwin's son, Francis, wrote that, although they never met 'the correspondence with Müller, which continued to the close of…
Matches: 15 hits
- … in Life and letters of Charles Darwin , wrote of Fritz Müller They never met, but the …
- … him. My impression is that of all his unseen friends Fritz Müller was the one for whom he had the …
- … him to be a second father.” Fritz (Johann Friedrich Theodor) Müller was born in the small …
- … his studies and where, under the supervision of Johannes Müller, he received his PhD in 1844. Müller …
- … After four years of living a frontier existence, Müller left the mainland and got a job in Destêrro …
- … a copy of the German edition in 1861 from his good friend, Max Schlultze, formerly a fellow student …
- … It was in large part through his contact with Schultze that Müller’s own original research was given …
- … eventually came to Darwin’s attention. Earlier in 1861, Müller had discovered a new group of …
- … Darwin), appeared in 1864, and Darwin received a copy from Müller. Darwin found the German too …
- … Linnean Society ( Botany ). Having now read Müller’s book, Darwin initiated a …
- … was already collegial; he was clearly impressed both with Müller’s technical skill as well as his …
- … him that he had sent a copy of ‘Climbing plants’, hoping Müller would have received it. …
- … supplementary material on many areas of research from Müller, and encouraged him to publish his own …
- … pursuits altogether. Thanks to a change in government, Müller was appointed to the position of …
- … society of London in 1879 on Darwin’s suggestion . Müller continued to produce a range of …
Darwin's in letters, 1873: Animal or vegetable?
Summary
Having laboured for nearly five years on human evolution, sexual selection, and the expression of emotions, Darwin was able to devote 1873 almost exclusively to his beloved plants. He resumed work on the digestive powers of sundews and Venus fly traps, and…
Matches: 4 hits
- … in February. He received detailed observations from Fritz Müller in Brazil, Friedrich Hildebrand in …
- … had recently been criticised for this by the philologist Friedrich Max Müller in a series of …
- … receiving a copy of the lectures, Darwin was deferential to Max Müller’s expertise, but in the …
- … of the arguments opposed to this belief” ( letter to Friedrich Max Müller, 3 July 1873 ). …
Darwin in letters, 1875: Pulling strings
Summary
‘I am getting sick of insectivorous plants’, Darwin confessed in January 1875. He had worked on the subject intermittently since 1859, and had been steadily engaged on a book manuscript for nine months; January also saw the conclusion of a bitter dispute…
Matches: 7 hits
- … debate with the Oxford professor of oriental languages, Friedrich Max Müller. George’s article also …
- … which had become a debating point between Whitney and Max Müller. In Descent 2d ed., pp. 86–8, …
- … language through unconscious processes, and had criticised Max Müller’s insistence that language was …
- … H. Darwin 1874c, p. 894). On previous occasions, Max Müller and Darwin had aired their …
- … I find it in language & what is implied by language.’ Max Müller also published an article in …
- … might offer on astronomy, or the Duke of Wellington on art (Max Müller 1875, pp. 305–7). The debate …
- … correspondents such as Ernst Haeckel, Fritz and Hermann Müller, and Anton Dohrn. Although the …
Language: Interview with Gregory Radick
Summary
Darwin made a famous comment about parallels between changes in language and species change. Gregory Radick, Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Leeds University, talks about the importance of the development of language to Darwin, what…
Matches: 5 hits
- … something that Darwinians could never explain. His name was Friedrich Max Müller He was a professor …
- … that brains got more developed and through struggle. But, Müller said, no scientific explanation …
- … of the science of language—comparative philology, as Müller represented it—showed, Müller said, that …
- … was ultimately right. And so what Darwin did by joining Müller on the other side of the debate over …
- … to a massively important public debate, and to show that Max Müller was wrong, that language was not …
Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online
Summary
To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…
Darwin in letters, 1864: Failing health
Summary
On receiving a photograph from Charles Darwin, the American botanist Asa Gray wrote on 11 July 1864: ‘the venerable beard gives the look of your having suffered, and … of having grown older’. Because of poor health, Because of poor health, Darwin…
Matches: 3 hits
- … with Gray, Philip Henry Gosse, George Chichester Oxenden, Friedrich Hildebrand, and others mentioned …
- … at the new botanic garden in Castleton, Jamaica. Darwin and Friedrich Hildebrand in Germany compared …
- … Schleicher and Carl Gegenbaur, Edouard Claparéde in Geneva, Max Schultze in Bonn, Rudolf Leuckart in …
