re: #8 Conservative Moonbat

Weren’t they going to try and distribute 5000 copies around California in one day or some ridiculous bullshit like that?

Who reads the introductions to new editions of classical texts anyway?

The fact of the matter is that very few people are going to read OoS on their own if it’s not assigned in a class. They are going to read Stephen Jay Gould or a more modern biologist explaining Darwin. If they do read it for a class, it won’t be this version assigned and if they get to pick their own text they won’t be assigned to read the introduction.

Actually, I read the introductions to pretty much everything.

But as to why they’re doing this: it sprinkles a published work around the world which they can then cite in the future. Like Noam Chomsky, they’re creating their own reference chain to take the place of the nothingness that currently backs them up.

I’d also have concerns over the state of the text itself. I have a strong suspicion it’s been, shall we say, modified in this edition, once again with an eye toward future citation in mind.