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Since I came a bit late to the class, I have tried to read as much Darwin as possible in the past few days. I guess I will just respond to a couple things I read in the first half of the book.

I would say the most interesting idea I came across was the idea that a lot of survival of the fittest is the unconscious aid of humans to each species. The species that have grown and flourished through history have been the species that have been noticed and loved by man. Why does man's interest in a species determine their survival? In many ways, we are the most powerful of all creatures, but in many ways, we are not. Darwin shows how animals that are loved are then better documented and more noticed by humans, and so we try to breed the species to make them better than they are, which results in a much larger number of varieties. It is interesting that dogs are one of these animals that have such a large amount of different types, since as far as I know, dogs don't have a true useful purpose for humans besides being our companions. I think it really says something about the history of humans that dogs have always been so important to us. One other really interesting idea that I read was when Darwin mentioned on p.118 a slight comment about man's interest in the external over the internal. Darwin shows how breeding was generally manipulated in order to improve the looks of an animal, or something we can see, rather than something inside, that we can't see. Darwin says, "indeed he rarely cares for what is internal." It is fascinating that this search for external beauty over an internal beauty is not a new phenomenon, and it affected beings other than humans. Apparently, many animals that men have learned to love have evolved over the years into more visibly pleasing creatures. And this dates back to the 19th century.