as speculating boldly from the very beginning in favor of evolution. In addition, Darwin himself at other times admitted his dislike for the Baconian method. (Vorzimmer, 1970)For instance, in one of his correspondences he wrote How odd it is that any one should not see that all observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service. And elsewhere, No one could be a good observer unless he was an active theorizer. Therefore, a more accurate description of his method would be, inventing a theory and seeing how many classes of facts the theory could explain. (Himmelfarb,1959)Early Theorizing Darwin was fixated upon the whys of evolution. He contemplated such questions as Why is life short ? Why does the individual die, and why do species die ? Why does nature put so high a premium on generation ? And why does generation have the twofold character of perpetuation and variation? It seems that apart from the occasional reference to adaptation, Darwin, at that time, almost deliberately tried to avoid the contemporary theories of the mechanics of evolution. (Vorzimmer, 1970)Notwithstanding, Darwin, sooner or later, had to confront the question of how evolution occurred. Amusingly, he happened to stumble upon the answer quite accidentally. In his spare time Darwin enjoyed reading various books rather aimlessly, for amusement. One of these books, which he read in October 1838, happened to be Malthus Essay on the Principle of Population. As Darwin himself later related, Malthus description of the struggle for existence in human society immediately suggested to him that under the competitive conditions of animal and plant life, favorable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavorable ones destroyed, the result being the formation of new species. By this chance encounter, Darwins theory was provided with a rationale, and the how of evolution came to supplement the why. (Bowler,1990)It is important to note, that even thoug...
