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Darwin
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What is Darwin?

Charles Darwin stands as one of the most consequential figures in the history of science, and students across disciplines—biology, history, philosophy, literature, and psychology—are regularly asked to examine his life, theories, and lasting influence. His foundational work on evolution by natural selection, most fully developed in Origin of Species, transformed how human beings understand life, nature, and the relationship between species. What makes Darwin academically compelling is not only the scientific framework he established but also the cultural and ideological tremors that followed, from debates about religion and morality to the emergence of Social Darwinism and its controversial applications of concepts like "survival of the fittest."

Student papers on Darwin take a notably wide range of approaches. Some engage directly with his scientific theories, comparing his thinking to that of predecessors and contemporaries such as Lamarck and Alfred Russel Wallace. Others pursue historical and cultural analysis, examining how Darwinian ideas spread into fields far beyond biology. Literary approaches appear as well, with papers connecting evolutionary themes to works like Tennyson's In Memoriam. Still others focus on summaries and critiques of specific texts, including "Darwin's Untimely Burial," or trace how concepts like natural selection intersect with modern issues such as genetic testing.

A strong essay on Darwin begins with a focused, arguable thesis rather than a broad survey of his entire legacy. Evidence drawn from primary scientific texts, historical reception, or specific case studies carries more weight than general summary. The most common pitfall is conflating Darwin's own theory of natural selection with Social Darwinism, a later ideological movement he did not endorse—keeping that distinction clear is essential to accurate analysis.

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Research Paper Undergraduate

The ontological, teleological, cosmological, and moral arguments for God's existence

Traditionally there have been four main arguments for the existence of God, the ontological argument, the teleological argument, the cosmological argument, and, of course, the moral argument.

Paper Undergraduate

The dangers of unchecked scientific ambition in Frankenstein

Knowledge and Peril Explored in Shelley's Frankenstein

Essay Doctorate

Anomie and alienation in classical sociology and Marx

Running through the literature of classical late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century sociology are themes of isolation, of the poverty of life lived in isolated cells, of the fragility of a life in which we can almost never make authentic connections with other people, in which we are lost even to ourselves. We have – and this "we" includes the entire population of the industrialized world, or at least most of it – have raised the act of rationalism to an art form, but along the way we have lost so much of our humanity that we can no longer form or maintain a community. Four of the major social critics of the twentieth century took up these themes for essentially the same reason: To argue that while ailing human society could be transformed in ways that would give it meaning once again. They differ significantly, however, in what the nature of that transformation should and what meaning humans should be intent on seeking.

Louis Agassiz and the foundations of nineteenth-century natural history

Though he may not be as well-known in the general populace as his contemporaries Darwin and Spencer, Louis Agassiz is responsible for some of the greatest achievements in geology, marine biology, paleontology and…

Paper Undergraduate

Kenneth Miller's defense of evolution against creationism and intelligent design

Perhaps most significantly among thinkers on the subject of 'natural selection', Darwin's seminal works touched inherently upon so many disciplines as to bear applicable interpretations in nearly any context.

Paper Doctorate

Endangered World Heritage sites: The Galapagos Islands and Niokolo-Koba National Park

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization maintains a list of its own World Heritage Sites that are in particular danger at any given time. These sites may be cultural or biological; this…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Parapraxis and the psychoanalytic interpretation of speech errors

Slips of the tongue, lapsus linguae, parapraxes or fehlleistung are many different ways to say, perhaps, the same thing. During the course of our lives we all certainly have made an error or two in speech.

Essay Doctorate

Interpersonal attraction and isolation in Up in the Air

This paper provides an intercultural analysis of Up in the Air, a 2009 Jason Reitman film. Emphasis is paid to how the film explores issues of relationships, perception, language and nonverbal communication; in this regard, interpersonal attraction, heuristics, appearance and artifacts, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis are all examined in detail.

Paper Undergraduate

Colonial dispossession and Aboriginal health outcomes in Australia

The colonisation of Australia is a prime example of the rampant disregard for those who are other than us. The dominance of the British demonstrates fully the concept of ethnocentrism, often fostered by a xenophobic…

Research Paper Undergraduate

Science and religion: historical conflict and compatibility patterns

There is great distance between the concepts imposed by science and those brought by religion. In many aspects they contradict each other or differ in the answers given to historical questions that man has tried to…

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