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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.
I have several issues with this otherwise impressive survey of Wallace:
1. Early on he's referred to as "'father of biogeography'", but actually this should be 'historical biogeography' or 'evolutionary biogeography', as some have reasoned that the 'fathers' of ecological biogeography should be considered Alexander von Humboldt, or the father-and-son Candolles.
2. "one of the first...life on Mars" would be more accurately stated "one of the first to publish a serious scientific appraisal of the conditions for life on the surface of Mars."
3. Delete ", the normal leaving age for a pupil not going on to university." : This is not so, according to James Williams, an expert in the history of British education (which Van Wyhe is not), per https://works.bepress.com/charles_smith/77/ .
4. quotation ending "...perhaps superior to it" --Source is Vol.1 of Wallace's autobiography (1905) My Life, p. 256.
5. "reached Sarawak in October 1855" --No, the date was Oct. 1854!
6. "early 1856 wet season..." --No, the year was 1855!
7. "he sent an article outlining..." --No, he sent a ms. draft, with no request to publish.
8. "Shipping schedules...letter to Lyell." No, absolutely not. Delete this sentence: another letter Wallace sent out at the same is well known to have reached Bates's brother Frederick a few weeks before the Lyell letter. Somebody has misread this, or the sources.
9. "Kottler showed that Wallace..." Add mention that a 1900 letter from Wallace published in 1977 ends this discussion; see: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/wallace/S712AM.htm
10. "...evolution was not teleological (purpose-driven)..." The word 'teleological' here is not descriptive of Wallace's views, as he *never* believed in first-causes-based thinking--instead, he followed a doctrine of final causes (which he also applied to his thoughts anticipating the anthropic principle). The use of the word 'teleology' here is a serious misrepresentation of his views!!! Shermer is misguided on this.
11. "But Wallace believed that evolution had a purpose ("teleology")" Yes, he did--but delete 'teleology' here, as Wallace never believed in first-causes understandings. Again, it was about final causes, and this is an *important* distinction!
12. The section on Spiritualism ignores the important point that he believed the 'Spirit Realm' represented a non-physically extended part of the natural world. Your coverage of the subject ignores the dozen or more times I have brought this out in published works over a thirty year period, including its implications for how spiritualism 'completed' his model of evolution by explaining the ongoing evolution of consciousness. This section is a caricature; it speaks only of what many people have said about Wallace, as opposed to what he himself thought about the matter.
13. The section on anti-vaccination does not make it clear enough that Wallace and others viewed the legislation of then on vaccination as infringing on civil liberties, to the extent that the fees involved for registering amounted a sizable percent of the average working-man's annual salary.
14. 'Writings' section: The 2002 summary was based entirely on *my* work, which I have since extended. The "747 shorter pieces" tally is now at "more than 1100", as documented at my 'Alfred Russel Wallace Page' site.
--Note: I consider myself (as do the others who work on Wallace) a top authority on him, especially his philosophy and bibliography; I was just awarded a silver medal for this work by the Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund. 74.130.242.137 (talk) 23:21, 19 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]
He was born to Anglo-Scottish parents, considered himself English and everyone in his lifetime, including his Welsh friends, considered him to be English.--SinoDevonian (talk) 20:46, 2 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]
level-4 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
