Introduction

Jay Lamar and James T. Bradley

Humankind is fortunate for the life of Charles Robert Darwin (1809–82). This volume, Darwin: A Celebration of His Life and Legacy, commemorates the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the first edition of his most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Darwin changed the world forever with his 1859 publication of that book, whose title was shortened to On the Origin of Species with its sixth edition in 1872. The ideas in On the Origin of Species reordered the biological sciences; spawned new disciplines of inquiry such as evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, and evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo); became foundational for modern biomedical research and practice; inspired new literature and literary criticism; were grotesquely misused by 20th-century eugenicists and social Darwinists; traumatized persons with certain theological views; and continue to alter humankind's view of itself and its place in the world.

The collective contributions to the present anthology tell an interdisciplinary story of Charles Darwin the person, Darwin's work and world-altering ideas, and Darwin's legacy. This celebratory volume is the result of a happy and stimulating collaboration between the College of Liberal Arts (CLA), the College of Sciences and Mathematics (COSAM), the Caroline Marshall Draughn Center for the Arts & Humanities, and the Outreach Committee in the Department of Biological Sciences at Auburn University, a land-grant institution on the eastern plains of Alabama. During the spring of 2009, the collaborators organized and sponsored a semester-long "Darwin Celebration" for the university and the larger community. The celebration included weekly lectures on diverse aspects of Darwin's life, ideas, and legacy, and a birthday party on February 12. The lecture series included 13 speakers from four CLA departments and two COSAM departments. In addition, three world-renowned science/evolution scholars and writers visited campus to lecture and interact with undergraduate students: paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey, author and evolutionary biologist Kenneth Miller, and science journalist and author Natalie Angier. Nine speakers and four additional Auburn University scholars contributed essays for this volume. For Darwin's birthday party, Department of Biological Sciences faculty and graduate students baked and gave away more than 800 cupcakes and distributed 2,000 commemorative bookmarks to students walking between classes.

The purpose of Auburn University's Darwin Celebration was to present Darwin's ideas and their impact on diverse disciplines for general audiences in a friendly, clear, accurate, non-proselytizing way. Commemorative bookmarks with a copy of the image of Darwin and the Galapagos finches in the frieze outside the entrance to the Auburn University's Science Center Classroom were distributed to all event attendees.

We note with interest that the centennial celebration of publication of On the Origin of Species occurred in the same year as the famous 1959 Rede Lecture, "The Two Cultures," by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow. Snow lamented the disconnection between science and the humanities. In fact, he noted the downright hostility that often exists between the two cultures brought on by different professional languages and differing views of the human condition. Snow wrote of the optimism of scientists and contrasted it with literary artists' focus on human tragedy and loneliness. With rare exceptions, little has happened...