Darwin and Lincoln by Steven Conn

Reacting to Ideas # 1:  The author dissects similarities between Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin in this reading. In his second paragraph he states "In different ways, each liberated us from tradition"  and then goes to explain further. This is the first clue as to how Lincoln and Darwin are alike. Lincoln was responsible for spearheading a social revolution, in which slavery  and the socio-economic filters which enabled it were dramatically changed through the Emancipation Proclamation, provoked by the Civil War. Darwin's revolution took on a scientific and evolutionary character in the context of the evolution of species. This came to provide a wider receptivity about the natural world, enabling a broader sense of our environment, and how we engage with it.

In reference to the author's aforementioned statement "In different ways, each liberated us from tradition"  In the context of slavery, Lincoln's revolution, Darwin himself was an advocate of abolitionism. In the last few paragraph's of the essay, Darwin's beliefs are discussed and mentioned that "in a Darwinian world we are all members of one human family". In Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation speech, Lincoln reminds us that slavery cannot exist "in a nation founded on the belief that all men are created equal" In these ways and more explored in this essay, Darwin and Lincoln's revolutions are similar, is not symbiotic.

Reacting to the Pattern # 2: Conn makes the same points for both men in the essay, he continuously provides statements immediately followed by an example, in the context of how both men are similar. The author goes back and forth between his two subjects. He discusses ways in which their ideas were similar, and how their further reaching influences are also similar. I feel the essay ends abruptly, focusing on the social rejection in the South of Lincoln's ideals, and this is the only problem I see.