The Curiosity of Alfred Russel Wallace

A good example is the case of research into the paranormal, and I want to give examples here of two distinguished scientists who were more curious than the rest of the “mainstream” in their time. The first one of these two is Alfred Russel Wallace, known as the co-founder of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. 

Was he really a co-founder or the originator? This question is still being debated, sometimes fervently In 2006 Roy Davies, who was researching Darwin’s case for the BBC, summarized the story in his book “The Darwin Conspiracy. Origins of a Scientific Crime.”

Now, I am convinced that Charles Darwin – British national hero, hailed as the greatest naturalist the world has ever known, the originator of one of the greatest ideas of the nineteenth century – lied, cheated and plagiarised in order to be recognised as the man who discovered the theory of evolution.

Charles H. Smith, Science Librarian and Professor of Library Public Services at Western Kentucky University, created a whole website devoted exclusively to the heritage of Alfred Russel Wallace. After examining all the evidence concerning the extent and the priority of both Darwin’s and Wallace’s contributions, he takes a more careful position:

Question: Did Darwin really steal material from Wallace to complete his theory of natural selection?

Answer: Maybe, though the evidence is something short of compelling.

Alfred Russel Wallace

The fact is that Alfred Russel Wallace diverged from Darwin’s purely materialistic position, and therefore had to be punished by those scientists who took it as their creed that anything that goes beyond materialism is either not worthy of their attention or simply wrong. Alfred Wallace was more curious than most of his colleague scientists and his curiosity were not well received. The result was that, today his works are mostly unknown or ignored.

What happened?

Darwin and Wallace Part Company

Around 1865, six years after Darwin published his celebrated “On the origin of species”, Wallace, who was more open-minded than Darwin, became seriously interested in research on faculties of the human mind, including what is called popularly “supernatural – respecting which Darwin did not show any interest at all. Darwin knew all about it in advance, and he did not want to look at the facts, the subject was simply boring for him.

“I wonder why. I wonder why.

I wonder why I wonder.

I wonder why I wonder why

I wonder why I wonder!”

So wrote Richard Feynman, the famous American physicist and Nobel Prize winner, in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" - Adventures of a Curious Character”. Darwin and many others who held important positions in society, industry and politics, did not wonder and did not want to wonder.

Here is what happened.

In 1866, after some experimenting on his own, Wallace published his first book on this subject: “The scientific aspects of the supernatural: indicating the desirablenessof an experimental enquiry by men of science into the alleged powersof clairvoyants and mediums.”

He was simply drawing the attention of scientists to the phenomena that he considered important and in need of a serious scientific inquiry. The response that Wallace received revealed a great deal about the level of curiosity that is supposed to be one of the major characteristics of a scientific mind.

Augustus deMorgan, British mathematician who established the foundation for modern logic (de Morgan laws) was one of the very few who responded with understanding. He confessed, in a letter to Wallace, that he observes the reactions of his students to their exposure to the unknown, and by their reactions can tell whether they are “men of science” or not.

Wallace invited a number of respected scientists – including the noted physicist, John Tyndall – to assist in his investigations into psychic phenomena. His idea was to create a new branch of Anthropology. He also invited convinced Darwinist, T.H. Huxley. Huxley refused the invitation writing: “It may all be true, for anything I know to the contrary, but really I cannot get up any interest in the subject.” Wallace pressed him and Huxley stated that he’d “heard enough of spirit communications to know that they were so much nonsense” and “It’s too amusing to be a fair work, and too hard work to be amusing” (Keep in mind that Huxley was a self-taught biologist in the days when biology was rather primitive, and became one of the finest comparative anatomists of his day. However, he does seem to have had some political motivations. It is said of Huxley that “Before him, science was mostly a gentleman’s occupation, after him, science was a profession.”).

As for Darwin, he only once sat in a séance, in 1874 – or almost did. When the affair was about to start, Darwin suddenly jumped to his feet and left the room. "The Lord has mercy on us all, if we have to believe in such rubbish" – he commented. His wife Emma, who was there, explained, "He won't believe it, he dislikes the thought of it so very much”. That tells us about the quality of Darwin’s curiosity – a sine qua non condition, without which Science dies. Perhaps we can better understand now why it is said of him that he “lied, cheated and plagiarised in order to be recognised as the man who discovered the theory of evolution” (Davies, R., 2008. The Darwin Conspiracy. Golden Square, London, p. 162). This raises, of course, the interesting question that might be studied scientifically: Does a lack of curiosity also correlate with a lack of character?

Coming next: The Encyclopedia Universalis Twists the Truth