ABSTRACT
In contrast with the strategy of "radical coherence", other readers favoured a "limited relevance" view of Darwin. A. R. Wallace, for instance, although a radical selectionist regarding non-human species, considered human mental powers to lie beyond the reach of natural selection. Judged according to the Origin, the "Darwinism" of the first "Darwinians" appears to represent the search for the laws of generation, of growth, and of heredity—what can be called sensu lato Variation—just as well as it represents the theory of the natural selection of these same variations. Revisiting the Origin of Species set itself only one goal: advocating that the Origin be reread once more, highlighting, step-by-step, a host of difficulties and ambiguities, each one laden with contradicting interpretations. The 1859 text reveals that Darwin did, in fact, open the door to evolutionary factors beyond random variation and natural selection.
