It was interesting to hear about the perspectives of ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle, and how they thought of the natural world with typological thinking, not focused on variations between species. I hadn’t heard this term before. I also enjoyed learning about the scientists leading up to Darwin – Hutton, for example, whose work gave Darwin the concept of “deep time,” which was necessary for his theory of evolution to be viable. To contrast with scientists like Hutton, Rev. Paley reinforced concepts that Darwin’s work would ultimately have to overcome (example: species can’t evolve because they are already perfectly adapted). Overall, I enjoyed learning more details about Darwin to help fill in the gaps left by the movie.
Yes, the deeper understanding you describe often leads to an appreciation that scientists don’t operate in a vacuum. We can appreciate Darwin’s genius and also understand he would not have come to his conclusions without his unique life and influences.