Desmond and Moore’sDarwin’s Sacred Cause

In their book Darwin’s Sacred Cause (2009) Adrian Desmond and JamesMoore purport to demonstrate that they have provided an original explanation for theinspiration behind Darwin’s determined pursuit of an explanatory theory for thetransformation of species of which he became convinced as a result of his experiencesduring the Beagle voyage of 1831 to 1836. This, they argue, was the “moral passion” thatwas evoked by his encountering the horrors of slavery during the periods he was able todisembark to explore areas of South America in the years 1832 to 1835. In short, theyprovide what they describe as “the untold story of how Darwin’s abhorrence of slaveryled to our modern understanding of evolution.” This article explores the means by whichthe authors seek to persuade readers of the validity of their thesis, and concludes thatfar from providing compelling evidence, by providing a mass of historically interestingmaterial relating to slavery that is actually tangential to their case, they obscure thefact that they fail to accomplish their aim. There is nothing in their account of eventsthat provides a reason for preferring their explanation for Darwin’s devotion tounderstanding the processes involved in the transformation of species to the knownhistorical facts of Darwin’s early zeal for natural science, exhibited in his childhoodexploits with beetles and his more organized scientific activities when he was a studentat Cambridge, enabled to come to fruition by his scientific activities during the voyageof the Beagle