Darwin, domestic breeding and artificial selection

Abstract

Darwin's references to domestic breeding throughout his published work are usually taken to support an analogical argument: because artificial selection and natural selection are similar, and since artificial selection can produce great change, natural selection must also be able to produce great change. However, the analogy between domestic breeding and nature was understood by Darwin and his contemporaries to indicate instead the inefficacy of selection. Darwin was treating domestic breeding as an ‘experiment’, and relied on the differences between domestication and nature - particularly those that rendered artificial selection inefficacious.

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