Comment 4 by Agrajag :

It seems to me that the issue here is not who had the idea first, which is something that really doesn't matter, as Pitchguest says, since it is generally acknowledged that the idea was developed independently. The important thing is that Darwin is apparently cleared of unethical behavior. Steve

I view the whole question with contempt. I have learned enough about human value systems to note to myself that the over importance ascribed to the ethical moralities of who did what first and when are but a human preoccupation that is often more motivated by who deserves the most financial, thus nostalgic merit, rather than the perfection of the ideas having occurred at all.

To me, the ideas themselves are the champion of merit, finally helping me identify myself and the beauty of how to think amidst a pollution of alternatives that would have me do otherwise. In this respect the human through whom they came is if no real significance, which is probably more in line with the thinking of whomever loves ideas for the beauty they propagate and not for the elevation of their status amidst a vast array of contemporaries. Elitism is not a subject I take kindly towards, more especially when it responds in the vastness of all kinds of inequalities and exploitative emotional biases I feel even more surrounded by.