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Darwin and Evolution

This excerpt is from "On the Origin of Species," a groundbreaking work published by Charles Darwin in 1859. In it, Darwin presents his theory of evolution by natural selection, which challenged traditional views on the origins of life and the place of humans in the natural world.
Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
Charles Darwin, "On the Origin of Species," 1859

Question 1

Short answer
Describe one way the ideas expressed in the excerpt changed the field of biology.

Question 2

Short answer
Identify one view of life the ideas presented in the excerpt challenged.

Question 3

Short answer
Explain one way the ideas expressed in "On the Origin of Speciies" influenced European political or social thought in the late 19th century.

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