Richard Owen, the archetypal villain
evolutionism in the works of Richard Owen
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23925/2178-2911.2023v28p60-28Abstract
Richard Owen (1804-1892) is considered by some chroniclers as the second most important naturalist of the Victorian Era, second only to Charles Darwin (1809-1882), but his figure for a long time remained in obscurity, as well as his judgments on the evolutionary issue. Owen was assigned the role of villain in natural history, labeled as an antiquated creationist with a retrograde personality, but in recent decades science historians have tried to demystify his figure, shedding light on his views on evolution. By examining the main works of Owen, who worked mainly in the discipline of comparative anatomy, it can be seen that his theories have changed over the decades, and at the beginning of his career Owen emerged mainly linked to the functionalist ideology, later adopting a transcendentalist aspect defending the concept of a vertebrate archetype inspired by the precepts of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and the German naturalists. However, after the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, Owen, who previously cultivated an ambiguous position regarding the evolutionary phenomenon, is obliged to expose his true opinions on the subject. This takes shape in his derivative hypothesis that advocated an orderly succession of living forms in the light of the archetype, however this precept was seen as outdated and even confused with “strict sense creationism” attributing the fixist shell to Owen.
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