Charles Lyell vs. Charles Darwin
Side-by-side comparison of two thinkers
Charles Lyell
1767 – 1849
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known today for his association with Charles Darwin and as the author of Principles of Geology (1830–33), which presented to a wide public audience the idea that the earth was shaped by the same natural processes still in operation today, operating at similar intensities. The philosopher William Whewell dubbed this gradualistic view "uniformitarianism" and contrasted it with catastrophism, which had been championed by Georges Cuvier and was better accepted in Europe.
"He refers to many examples of changes now constantly going on, and insists emphatically on the great results which they must produce in the lapse of ages. He in…"
Charles Darwin
1758 – 1778
English naturalist who developed the theory of evolution by natural selection.
"If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week."
Connections
Both wrote about: