Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very intersting, 17 Mar 2008
This is a very interesting story of a voyage that changed the perception of the world.
As a young naturalist Darwin went on board the Beagle to map and make observations of South America. One can only imagine how exciting it must have been for him to be around so much wildlife and new species , his senses must have been on overdrive all the time.
The book is a transcript from his diary with some illustrations ,more maps would have been welcome in this edition. A basic knowledge of Biology and geography is needed to fully appreciate this book.
Very good read.
|
|
|
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the big bang of knowledge of life, 15 May 2009
It just does not wash ! We, readers, should feel too humble to make a review of the content of this epic work, it is just not on. This is not a normal book and therefore not suited for any layman's judgement. A genius of mankind changing the world of thinking on life for ever is not something to 'review'. Actually I believe that Amazon.com should invite people to express human emotions/ sensations about the book, but not a review by readers, come on. I can only say I bought this version because I like the cover picture and colour layout. Sober and solemn, fitting this 'big bang' of intelligence on life written down so long ago by a humble yet so giant of a man himself.
|
|
|
5.0 out of 5 stars
On the Destiny of Species, 18 Oct 2009
On the Origin of Species must be one of the most famous books in history, yet very few people have any idea what it says. Indeed, even those who claim to have read it seem to have missed the true implications because it's not a book that supports the endless doom and gloom rhetoric that defines modern conservation. In fact, it specifically insults those that wallow in the assumed importance of their own pessimism:
"Nevertheless, so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration of the forms of life!"
I guess there's a possibility modern conservationists haven't actually read it after all, but either way, objective natural history has been drowned in a cauldron of sentimental hysteria that has nothing to do with Charles Darwin. How comfortable do you think the WWF would be with this quote for example?
"Thus, as it seems to me, the manner in which single species and whole groups of species become extinct accords well with the theory of natural selection."
Given their involvement in the wonderfully preposterous Alliance for Zero Extinction, I would suggest not very. The Alliance for Zero Extinction also includes the Charles Darwin Foundation by the way, but in light of their utopian desperation to end extinction, how comfortable do you think the Charles Darwin Foundation would be with this quote (by Charles Darwin himself remember):
"We need not marvel at extinction; if we must marvel, let it be at our own presumption in imagining for a moment that we understand the many complex contingencies on which the existence of each species depends."
Again, I would suggest not very, and that's why I would urge everybody to read On the Origin of Species before accepting, or suggesting, that humans can `kill the planet'. Yes, they may kill giant pandas, and yes, they may kill polar bears, and yes, they may kill tigers, but no, they will not kill everything. Life will find a way (even if it's via cane toads and comb jellyfish and all the other species that humans don't like very much) and the suggestion that it needs our help is a grotesque insult, at the very best.
And besides, nature doesn't care about giant pandas or polar bears or tigers, as Charles Darwin was well aware:
"Nature, if I may be allowed to personify the natural preservation or survival of the fittest, cares nothing for appearances, except in so far as they are useful to any being."
We may be utterly obsessed with animals with fluffy coats and big eyes, but in reality, nature itself couldn't care less. Life is life after all, regardless of what it looks like:
"The most humble organism is something much higher than the dust under our feet; and no one with an unbiased mind can study any living creature, however humble, without being struck with enthusiasm at its marvellous structure and properties."
They're all incredible, regardless of which types conservationists are trying to save (red squirrels) or kill (grey squirrels) based entirely on self-centred prejudice, and if On the Origin of Species can't convince you, there's always On the Destiny of Species.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Richard Dawkins
by Charles Darwin
by Stephen Hawking
