Abstract
Charles Darwin published seven editions of The Origin of Species during his lifetime. Starting from the premise that said book is philosophical, Chapter IV of the work was analyzed here to find the elements underlying the explanation of natural selection throughout the seven editions. Using the criteria established by Leibniz in his Dissertation on the Philosophical Style of Nizolio, it was determined that the philosophical quality in the first edition is intermediate and increased in the following editions, mainly in the third compared to the second.
References
Beatty, John. 2008. «Chance variation and evolutionary contingency: Darwin, Simpson, The Simpsons, and Gould». In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology, edited by Michael Ruse, 189-210. New York: Oxford University Press.
Darwin, Charles. 1859. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (First Edition). London: John Murray. http://darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1859_Origin_F373.pdf
Darwin, Charles. 1860. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Second Edition). London: John Murray. http://darwinonline.org.uk/converted/pdf/1860_Origin_F376.pdf
Darwin, Charles. (1861): On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Third Edition). London: John Murray. http://darwinonline.org.uk/converted/pdf/1861_Origin_F381.pdf
Darwin, Charles. 1866. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Fourth Edition). London: John Murray. darwin-online.org.uk/converted/pdf/1866_Origin_F385.pdf
Darwin, Charles. 1869. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Fifth Edition). London: John Murray. Available at: http://darwinonline.org.uk/converted/pdf/1869_Origin_F387.pdf
Darwin, Charles. 1872. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Sixth Edition). London: John Murray. http://darwinonline.org.uk/converted/pdf/1872_Origin_F391.pdf
Darwin, Charles. 1876. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. (Sixth Edition, with additions and corrections). London: John Murray. http://darwinonline.org.uk/converted/pdf/1876_Origin_F401.pdf
Darwin, Francis, ed. 1898. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton and Company.
Descartes, René. 2006. Discurso del Método. Meditaciones Metafísicas. Traslated by Luis Rutiaga. México: Tomo.
Eco, Umberto. 1992. Los límites de la interpretación. Traslated by Helena Lozano. Barcelona: Lumen.
Haufe, Chris. 2012. «Darwin’s laws». Studies in history and philosophy of biological and biomedical sciences 43, n° 1: 26980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.10.011
Kant, Immanuel. 2006. Crítica de la razón pura. Traslated by Pedro Ribas. México: Taurus.
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm. 1993. Disertación sobre el estilo filosófico de Nizolio. Traslated by Luis Frayle. Madrid: Tecnos.
Popper, Karl. 1985. El darwinismo como programa metafísico. In Búsqueda sin término, Karl Popper. Traslated by Carmen García, 287-288. Madrid: Tecnos.
Ruse, Michael. 2009. Defining Darwin: essays on the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology. New York: Prometeus.
Wagner, Andreas. 2012. «The Role of Randomness in Darwinian Evolution». Philosophy of Science 79, n.° 1: 95–119.
##plugins.facebook.comentarios##

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Revista de Filosofía de la Universidad de Costa Rica