The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. - Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin and Shrewsbury Museum. 

When considering what it is to be human we are greatly influenced by the discoveries of Charles Darwin's as a part of the Copernican revolutions (As described by Freud). Darwin's theories of evolution continually intrigue me and make me want to further question what I am myself as a animal which has evolved over thousands of years. This is something which is often forgot in modern society as we feel a sense of self importance and superiority over other life forms even though we are simply animals and are also motivated by unconscious instincts such as the need to mate. However what divides and defines the human life is the complexity of the brain which allows us feel our complex emotions like love to disguise these instincts.  

I recently visited Shrewsbury Museum to see a Charles Darwin exhibition. One particularly interesting part was a 'thinking path' by artist Shirley Chubb. Thinking path is a name given to Darwin's ritual daily grounds of his home in Kent where he wrote the Origin of species. The thinking path combines images from first hand research, film stills from of video documentation taken of the actual thinking path recorded on significant anniversaries of Darwins' birth and death, sections from Darwin's writings and other sites of direct significance to Darwin.   

The thinking path allows a insight into the life and work of Darwin and gain greater focused perspective on Darwin's interest in life and the world around him. Further more Chubb's way of exhibting the slide through curved glass offers a interesting experience and the organised presentation reflects Darwin's use of ritual. 

The exhibition also contained many interesting fossils and artifacts of which inspired me. Being given the chance to view past life forms in such a way arises great questions of morality and the inevitability of death as a part of life.