The Darwinian

The Darwinian view of nature rocked the world in the 19th century, introducing notions such as natural selection and survival of the fittest. The emerging science of evolution and genetics led intellectuals to embrace determinism (the notion that human characteristics are determined scientifically by nature, rather than by the exercise of free will). Heredity and social environment came to be seen as the determiners of human conditions and behaviors, rather than concepts like moral judgment and self-control (the presence or absence of which were themselves products of heredity and nature). Darwinism radically affected human understanding of the world and came to be reflected in society in ways far too complex for a single Dose. The elevation of the importance of “nature” over free will and moral character expressed itself not just in intellectual circles and social policies, but also in the arts.

Under the influence of the emerging new scientific paradigm, the French novelist Emile Zola came to be the leading exponent of the school of literary “naturalism.” Zola was a fascinating character who made significant impacts on European history, some of which will be the subject of future Doses. In 1880 he published an essay titled “The Experimental Novel,” arguing that novelists should employ scientific detachment and the scientific method of experimentation in their portrayal of characters. He emphasized depicting the real lives of ordinary people—people who are products of their heredity and social environments. In Zola’s gritty depictions, the novelist was to be like a scientific observer of his subjects, showing them faithfully as they are, rather than using them as vehicles for teaching lessons about morality and virtue. The naturalist school spread across Europe and was reflected in the literature, drama, and art of his day, and was later embraced in America by writers such as Theodore Dreiser, Stephen Crane, and William Faulkner.

Naturalism eventually faded into the broader school of “realism,” but in its aftermath the days when art and literature were expected to teach moral lessons were gone.

The image is Van Gogh’s painting “The Potato Eaters” (1885), a good example of naturalism in the visual arts.