Origins and Species: A Study of the Historical Sources of Darwinism and the Contexts of Some Other Accounts of Organic Diversity from Plato and Aristotle On

Originally published in 1991, Origins and Species seeks to understand the historical origins of Darwinism. The book analyses the explanatory problem of species variation to which Darwinian theory was a response, while contrasting the Darwinian with other traditions of the time, in the interpretation of organic diversity. The book looks in detail at both Charles Darwins theories and Alfred Russell Wallaces theories of about plant and animal species and raises the question of the context of Darwinism and that of Platos and Aristotles understanding of species.