Jean- Baptiste Lamarck
Jean Baptiste Lamarck had a huge, positive, influence over Darwin's theory of natural selection. With his contributions to the science community at the time, he, along with few others, were the only supporters that early evolutionists had. His most notable studies being the idea of invertebrates, and the theory that all acquired traits are inherited. Much before his time, he created a new field of biology. He discovered by "reorganizing" species of insects and worms, and gathering all the knowledge he could about them, that their diversity in vertebrae led them to be classified differently. This, he felt, showed the true power of nature; nature takes its course in all animals, and all animals change over time. His work with vertebrae also advanced prior works of classification. He was the first to separate crustacean, arachnids, and annelids from insects. "Lamarckisim" is a term used to refer to the theory that acquired traits can be inherited. He believed that a change in environment caused change to the needs of the organisms living in that environment which caused changes in their behavior. Depending on how they behaved, organisms would alter their organs, either larger or smaller according to their demand for use. This became the "First Law".
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
Going back to the list, "How does evolution work?" I found that the point, "Individuals do not evolve, populations do", directly explained natural selection by using the works of Lamarck. I feel that Lamarck's work had a positive effect on this point because of his idea of heredity. Refuting Lamarck's ideas of heredity at first, Darwin later admitted that hereditary effects may have an impact on evolution. While their initial ideas of evolution may have differed in small details, the outcome is still roughly the same. That is that, change in lineage, caused by change in environment, occurs over long periods of time.
I believe that even without Lamarck's early evolution work, Darwin would have developed his theory of natural selection nonetheless. While much of Lamarck's ideas parallel Darwin's they shared several views, and Darwin even adopted some of Lamarck's theories of shrinking organs in his work.
Darwin's book, The Origin of Species, raised controversy with the Church because it questioned creationism. His work stated that, humans came to their known state by developing over time from a species of animal. This clashed with creationist ideas stating that man comes from God, or a higher power. Because of the controversy, and failure to abide by the status quo, many of Darwin's friends and associates were concerned with his work being published. This is still a heated topic of debate today, and continues to receive widespread support, as well as scorn.
I agree with your point about how individuals do not evolve, populations do is one of the things that Lamarck proved. I thought your reasoning behind this point was very well explained and and made a good point about how Lamarck's work had a positive effect after this point. I think you did a really good job of explaining how Lamarck contributed to evolution.
ReplyDeleteI did my post on Thomas Malthus, so it was nice to read a different perspective of who someone else thought was the most influential towards Darwin.
ReplyDeleteI found your post very informative and easy to read. Instead of it being one large paragraph, it was spaced very nicely.
I find it very interesting that Darwin's work still to this day gets a lot of criticism as well as support.
I also agree about your point regarding whether or not Darwin would have developed his theories with help from these influential people. I agree that he would have found a way to develop the theories, because even though they were very helpful, he had the knowledge. It doesn't hurt that he adopted some of Lamarck's theories as well as others to help him along the way.
Great post!
thanks for sharing, Josh
you did a very great job I wrote about Lamarck as well I like how you went into very detailed I totally agree with you
ReplyDeleteAlisia,
ReplyDeleteI also wrote about Jean Baptiste Lamarck and I completely agree with you. I find it difficult to believe that Darwin would have came up with his theories without the help of all these influential people, especially Lamarck since his work was the stepping stone for Darwin's idea of natural selection.
"With his contributions to the science community at the time, he, along with few others, were the only supporters that early evolutionists had."
ReplyDeleteCareful... a lot of modern, non-science language in there that didn't apply to Darwin's time. Evolution was actually a relatively common topic during Darwin's time and it was recognized that organisms changed, though before Lamarck, no one had developed a comprehensive mechanism that described how the process occurred. That is why Lamarck's work was such a big deal. Not because he was brave enough to study evolution, but because he took such big steps toward explaining how it worked.
"Evolutionists" is a term generally only used by those in present times who are referring to scientists in a derogatory manner. It has no meaning in the scientific community... because everyone is an "evolutionist".
Once you moved onto explain Lamarck's contributions to science, your information was quite good.
Interesting choice in bullet points, but primarily because Lamarck's theory suggest just the opposite... that individuals can and do evolve, changing during their lifetime and passing those changes onto their offspring. One of the reasons Lamarck's theory doesn't work is because individuals can't evolve like that. Only populations can change as the numbers of individuals with certain traits change.
Is that the only bullet point you could attribute to Lamarck?
I tend to agree with you that while Lamarck had a significant influence over Darwin, it is still reasonably likely that Darwin would have developed his theory, particularly with the other influences around him, other scientists as well as the information from Malthus and Darwin's friend, Charles Lyell.
Darwin kept his ideas under wraps for more than 20 years. Very few people knew about it. You may be able to count on one hand those in whom he confided. Not only that, Darwin played down greatly the issue of human evolution and just addressed the mechanism of natural selection in general toward the world's natural populations. Not to say there weren't those capable of connecting the dots to humans, but it wouldn't have been directly obvious. Why did Darwin delay for so long before publishing? Yes, his ideas did challenge the teachings of the church, but what repercussions might he have experienced? Was he only worried for himself or for his family?