Social Statics, or The Conditions essential to Happiness specified, and the First of them Developed is an 1851 book by the British polymath Herbert Spencer . The book was published by John Chapman of London .
129-400: In the book, he uses the term "fitness" in applying his ideas of Lamarckian evolution to society, saying for example that "It is clear that any being whose constitution is to be moulded into fitness for new conditions of existence must be placed under those conditions. Or, putting the proposition specifically—it is clear that man can become adapted to the social state, only by being retained in
258-615: A deist . The philosopher of biology Michael Ruse described Lamarck, "as believing in God as an unmoved mover, creator of the world and its laws, who refuses to intervene miraculously in his creation." Biographer James Moore described Lamarck as a "thoroughgoing deist". The historian Jacques Roger has written, "Lamarck was a materialist to the extent that he did not consider it necessary to have recourse to any spiritual principle... his deism remained vague, and his idea of creation did not prevent him from believing everything in nature, including
387-452: A final cause , that is to say that their form suited their function. He explicitly rejected the view of Empedocles that living creatures might have originated by chance. Other Greek philosophers, such as Zeno of Citiumm the founder of the Stoic school of philosophy, agreed with Aristotle and other earlier philosophers that nature showed clear evidence of being designed for a purpose; this view
516-558: A miniature form of all future generations. The term gradually gained a more general meaning of growth or progressive development. Later in the 18th century, the French philosopher Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon , one of the leading naturalists of the time, suggested that what most people referred to as species were really just well-marked varieties, modified from an original form by environmental factors. For example, he believed that lions, tigers, leopards, and house cats might all have
645-455: A botany book by James Francis Chomel. With a reduced pension of only 400 francs a year, Lamarck resolved to pursue a profession. He attempted to study medicine, and supported himself by working in a bank office. Lamarck studied medicine for four years, but gave it up under his elder brother's persuasion. He was interested in botany , especially after his visits to the Jardin du Roi , and he became
774-482: A common ancestor. He further speculated that the 200 or so species of mammals then known might have descended from as few as 38 original animal forms. Buffon's evolutionary ideas were limited; he believed each of the original forms had arisen through spontaneous generation and that each was shaped by "internal moulds" that limited the amount of change. Buffon's works, Histoire naturelle (1749–1789) and Époques de la nature (1778), containing well-developed theories about
903-558: A common evolutionary starting point. As a young student, Charles Darwin joined Grant in investigations of the life cycle of marine animals. In 1826, an anonymous paper, probably written by Robert Jameson , praised Lamarck for explaining how higher animals had "evolved" from the simplest worms; this was the first use of the word "evolved" in a modern sense. In 1844, the Scottish publisher Robert Chambers anonymously published an extremely controversial but widely read book entitled Vestiges of
1032-483: A completely materialistic origin for the Earth and his ideas questioning the fixity of species, were extremely influential. Another French philosopher, Denis Diderot , also wrote that living things might have first arisen through spontaneous generation, and that species were always changing through a constant process of experiment where new forms arose and survived or not based on trial and error; an idea that can be considered
1161-462: A decade later. Ideas about the transmutation of species were associated with the radical materialism of the Enlightenment and were attacked by more conservative thinkers. Cuvier attacked the ideas of Lamarck and Geoffroy, agreeing with Aristotle that species were immutable. Cuvier believed that the individual parts of an animal were too closely correlated with one another to allow for one part of
1290-420: A divinely created universe and the idea that the universe had developed over time through natural mechanisms. However, Aquinas disputed the views of those (like the ancient Greek philosopher Empedocles) who held that such natural processes showed that the universe could have developed without an underlying purpose. Aquinas rather held that: "Hence, it is clear that nature is nothing but a certain kind of art, i.e.,
1419-435: A eulogy to denigrate Lamarck: [Cuvier's] éloge of Lamarck is one of the most deprecatory and chillingly partisan biographies I have ever read—though he was supposedly writing respectful comments in the old tradition of de mortuis nil nisi bonum . While he was working on Hydrogéologie (1802), Lamarck had the idea to apply the principle of erosion to biology. This led him to the basic principle of evolution, which saw
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#17328581083281548-501: A faithful record of what happened. No Christian would dare say that the narrative must not be taken in a figurative sense. For St. Paul says: Now all these things that happened to them were symbolic [1 Cor 10:11]. And he explains the statement in Genesis, And they shall be two in one flesh [Eph 5:32], as a great mystery in reference to Christ and to the Church. Later he differentiates between
1677-543: A force adapting animals to their local environments and differentiating them from each other. He believed that these forces must be explained as a necessary consequence of basic physical principles, favoring a materialistic attitude toward biology. Lamarck referred to a tendency for organisms to become more complex, moving "up" a ladder of progress . He referred to this phenomenon as Le pouvoir de la vie or la force qui tend sans cesse à composer l'organisation (The force that perpetually tends to make order). Lamarck believed in
1806-500: A form of evolution. Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote in From the Greeks to Darwin (1894): If the orthodoxy of Augustine had remained the teaching of the Church, the final establishment of Evolution would have come far earlier than it did, certainly during the eighteenth instead of the nineteenth century, and the bitter controversy over this truth of Nature would never have arisen. ... Plainly as
1935-405: A linear ladder of complexity that was related to the great chain of being. Lamarck recognized that species adapted to their environment. He explained this by saying that the same innate force driving increasing complexity caused the organs of an animal (or a plant) to change based on the use or disuse of those organs, just as exercise affects muscles. He argued that these changes would be inherited by
2064-475: A major work on the classification of invertebrates. In the work, he introduced definitions of natural groups among invertebrates. He categorized echinoderms , arachnids , crustaceans , and annelids , which he separated from the old taxon for worms known as Vermes . Lamarck was the first to separate arachnids from insects in classification, and he moved crustaceans into a separate class from insects. In 1802, Lamarck published Hydrogéologie , and became one of
2193-444: A more well-established alternative. Lamarck is usually remembered for his belief in the then commonly held theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics , and the use and disuse model by which organisms developed their characteristics. Lamarck incorporated this belief into his theory of evolution, along with other common beliefs of the time, such as spontaneous generation. The inheritance of acquired characteristics (also called
2322-546: A partial anticipation of natural selection. Between 1767 and 1792, James Burnett, Lord Monboddo , included in his writings not only the concept that man had descended from primates, but also that, in response to the environment, creatures had found methods of transforming their characteristics over long time intervals. Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin , published Zoonomia (1794–1796) which suggested that "all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament." In his poem Temple of Nature (1803), he described
2451-449: A role for use and disuse as an evolutionary mechanism subsidiary to natural selection, most often in respect of disuse . He praised Lamarck for "the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all change in the organic... world, being the result of law, not miraculous interposition". Lamarckism is also occasionally used to describe quasi-evolutionary concepts in societal contexts, though not by Lamarck himself. For example,
2580-679: A rudimentary understanding of the theory of evolution, seeing humans as descending from certain mammals. These include the Malagasy people , who see humans as descending from indri ; the Aboriginal Tasmanians , which see humans as descending from kangaroos ; and some Native American cultures, such as the Navajo , whose creation myth details humans changing from animalistic creatures. Proposals that one type of animal , even humans , could descend from other types of animals, are known to go back to
2709-505: A series of 19th-century experiments with pea plant variations rediscovered in 1900, was integrated with natural selection by Ronald Fisher , J. B. S. Haldane , and Sewall Wright during the 1910s to 1930s, and resulted in the founding of the new discipline of population genetics . During the 1930s and 1940s population genetics became integrated with other biological fields, resulting in a widely applicable theory of evolution that encompassed much of biology—the modern synthesis . Following
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#17328581083282838-506: A small element of his theory of evolution, and was in his time accepted by many natural historians. Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of biological evolution, in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through use and disuse of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms. Scientists have debated whether advances in
2967-447: A sort of graduated and ordered advance to the creation of man . After the foundations of the universe were laid, as the history records, man did not appear on the earth at once, but the creation of the brutes preceded him, and the plants preceded them. Thereby Scripture shows that the vital forces blended with the world of matter according to a gradation; first it infused itself into insensate nature; and in continuation of this advanced into
3096-592: A student under Bernard de Jussieu , a notable French naturalist. Under Jussieu, Lamarck spent 10 years studying French flora. In 1776, he wrote his first scientific essay—a chemical treatise. After his studies, in 1778, he published some of his observations and results in a three-volume work, entitled Flore française . Lamarck's work was respected by many scholars, and it launched him into prominence in French science. On 8 August 1778, Lamarck married Marie Anne Rosalie Delaporte. Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon , one of
3225-457: A suitable way." Other philosophers who became more influential at that time, including Plato , Aristotle , and members of the Stoic school of philosophy , believed that the types of all things, not only living things, were fixed by divine design. Plato was called by biologist Ernst Mayr "the great antihero of evolutionism," because he promoted belief in essentialism, which is also referred to as
3354-535: Is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. Although Greek and Roman evolutionary ideas died out in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire , they were not lost to Islamic philosophers and scientists (nor to
3483-489: Is known as teleology . The Roman Skeptic philosopher Cicero wrote that Zeno was known to have held the view, central to Stoic physics, that nature is primarily "directed and concentrated...to secure for the world...the structure best fitted for survival." Ancient Chinese thinkers such as Zhuang Zhou ( c. 369 – c. 286 BC ), a Taoist philosopher, expressed ideas on changing biological species. According to Joseph Needham , Taoism explicitly denies
3612-597: Is more remarkable than [Aristotle's] efforts to [exhibit] the relationships of living things as a scala naturae ." This scala naturae , described in Historia animalium , classified organisms in relation to a hierarchical but static "Ladder of Life" or "great chain of being," placing them according to their complexity of structure and function, with organisms that showed greater vitality and ability to move described as "higher organisms." Aristotle believed that features of living organisms showed clearly that they had what he called
3741-410: Is now called soft inheritance , the inheritance of acquired characteristics, or simply "Lamarckism", though it forms only a part of Lamarck's thinking. However, in the field of epigenetics , evidence is growing that soft inheritance plays a part in the changing of some organisms' phenotypes; it leaves the genetic material ( DNA ) unaltered (thus not violating the central dogma of biology ) but prevents
3870-407: Is remembered, at least in malacology , as a taxonomist of considerable stature. The modern era generally remembers Lamarck for a theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics , called Lamarckism (inaccurately named after him), soft inheritance, or use/disuse theory, which he described in his 1809 Philosophie zoologique . However, the idea of soft inheritance long antedates him, formed only
3999-419: Is sometimes regarded as believing in a teleological (goal-oriented) process where organisms became more perfect as they evolved, though as a materialist, he emphasized that these forces must originate necessarily from underlying physical principles. According to the paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn , "Lamarck denied, absolutely, the existence of any 'perfecting tendency' in nature, and regarded evolution as
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4128-501: The Hellenistic elite. In line with earlier Greek thought, the third-century Christian philosopher and Church Father Origen of Alexandria argued that the creation story in the Book of Genesis should be interpreted as an allegory for the falling of human souls away from the glory of the divine, and not as a literal, historical account: For who that has understanding will suppose that
4257-542: The Mesozoic , the age of reptiles, and the current Cenozoic age of mammals. This progressive picture of the history of life was accepted even by conservative English geologists like Adam Sedgwick and William Buckland ; however, like Cuvier, they attributed the progression to repeated catastrophic episodes of extinction followed by new episodes of creation. Unlike Cuvier, Buckland and some other advocates of natural theology among British geologists made efforts to explicitly link
4386-464: The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in 1793, Lamarck became a professor of zoology . In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres , a major work on the classification of invertebrates , a term which he coined. In an 1802 publication, he became one of the first to use the term " biology " in its modern sense. Lamarck continued his work as a premier authority on invertebrate zoology . He
4515-407: The memetic theory of cultural evolution is sometimes described as a form of Lamarckian inheritance of nongenetic traits. During his lifetime, Lamarck named a large number of species, many of which have become synonyms. The World Register of Marine Species gives no fewer than 1,634 records. The Indo-Pacific Molluscan Database gives 1,781 records. Among these are some well-known families such as
4644-450: The pre-Socratic Greek philosophers . Anaximander of Miletus ( c. 610 – c. 546 BC ) proposed that the first animals lived in water, during a wet phase of the Earth 's past, and that the first land-dwelling ancestors of mankind must have been born in water, and only spent part of their life on land. He also argued that the first human of the form known today must have been
4773-573: The scientific revolution . Between 1650 and 1800, some naturalists, such as Benoît de Maillet , produced theories that maintained that the universe, the Earth, and life, had developed mechanically, without divine guidance. In contrast, most contemporary theories of evolution, such of those of Gottfried Leibniz and Johann Gottfried Herder , regarded evolution as a fundamentally spiritual process. In 1751, Pierre Louis Maupertuis veered toward more materialist ground. He wrote of natural modifications occurring during reproduction and accumulating over
4902-557: The theory of Forms . This theory holds that each natural type of object in the observed world is an imperfect manifestation of the ideal, form or "species" which defines that type. In his Timaeus for example, Plato has a character tell a story that the Demiurge created the cosmos and everything in it because, being good, and hence, "free from jealousy, He desired that all things should be as like Himself as they could be." The creator created all conceivable forms of life, since "without them
5031-512: The universe will be incomplete, for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is to be perfect." This " principle of plenitude "—the idea that all potential forms of life are essential to a perfect creation—greatly influenced Christian thought. However, some historians of science have questioned how much influence Plato's essentialism had on natural philosophy by stating that many philosophers after Plato believed that species might be capable of transformation and that
5160-452: The 1790s, William Smith began the process of ordering rock strata by examining fossils in the layers while he worked on his geologic map of England. Independently, in 1811, Cuvier and Alexandre Brongniart published an influential study of the geologic history of the region around Paris, based on the stratigraphic succession of rock layers. These works helped establish the antiquity of the Earth. Cuvier advocated catastrophism to explain
5289-406: The 1960s, followed by the neutral theory of molecular evolution , sparking debates over adaptationism , the unit of selection , and the relative importance of genetic drift versus natural selection as causes of evolution. In the late 20th-century, DNA sequencing led to molecular phylogenetics and the reorganization of the tree of life into the three-domain system by Carl Woese . In addition,
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5418-504: The Academie for financial assistance. Lamarck was buried in a common grave of the Montparnasse cemetery for just five years, according to the grant obtained from relatives. Later, the body was dug up along with other remains and was lost. Lamarck's books and the contents of his home were sold at auction, and his body was buried in a temporary lime pit. After his death, Cuvier used the form of
5547-403: The Earth are better explained as the result of the same gradual geologic forces observable in the present day—but acting over immensely long periods of time. Although Lyell opposed evolutionary ideas (even questioning the consensus that the fossil record demonstrates a true progression), his concept that the Earth was shaped by forces working gradually over an extended period, and the immense age of
5676-518: The Earth assumed by his theories, would strongly influence future evolutionary thinkers such as Charles Darwin. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed, in his Philosophie zoologique of 1809, a theory of the transmutation of species ( transformisme ). Lamarck did not believe that all living things shared a common ancestor but rather that simple forms of life were created continuously by spontaneous generation. He also believed that an innate life force drove species to become more complex over time, advancing up
5805-697: The Evolution theory. In A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (1896), Andrew Dickson White wrote about Augustine's attempts to preserve the ancient evolutionary approach to the creation as follows: For ages a widely accepted doctrine had been that water, filth, and carrion had received power from the Creator to generate worms, insects, and a multitude of the smaller animals; and this doctrine had been especially welcomed by St. Augustine and many of
5934-532: The French scientists who influenced Grant was the anatomist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire , whose ideas on the unity of various animal body plans and the homology of certain anatomical structures would be widely influential and lead to intense debate with his colleague Georges Cuvier. Grant became an authority on the anatomy and reproduction of marine invertebrates. He developed Lamarck's and Erasmus Darwin's ideas of transmutation and evolutionism , and investigated homology, even proposing that plants and animals had
6063-509: The Literal Meaning of Genesis ), he prefaces his account with the following: In all sacred books, we should consider the eternal truths that are taught, the facts that are narrated, the future events that are predicted, and the precepts or counsels that are given. In the case of a narrative of events, the question arises whether everything must be taken according to the figurative sense only, or whether it must be expounded and defended also as
6192-513: The Natural History of Creation . This book proposed an evolutionary scenario for the origins of the Solar System and of life on Earth. It claimed that the fossil record showed a progressive ascent of animals, with current animals branching off a main line that leads progressively to humanity. It implied that the transmutations lead to the unfolding of a preordained plan that had been woven into
6321-569: The Origin of Species (1859). Darwin's theory, originally called descent with modification is known contemporarily as Darwinism or Darwinian theory. Unlike Lamarck, Darwin proposed common descent and a branching tree of life , meaning that two very different species could share a common ancestor. Darwin based his theory on the idea of natural selection : it synthesized a broad range of evidence from animal husbandry , biogeography , geology , morphology , and embryology . Debate over Darwin's work led to
6450-576: The Paris Basin, he grew convinced that transmutation or change in the nature of a species occurred over time. He set out to develop an explanation, and on 11 May 1800 (the 21st day of Floreal , Year VIII, in the revolutionary timescale used in France at the time), he presented a lecture at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in which he first outlined his newly developing ideas about evolution. In 1801, he published Système des Animaux sans Vertèbres ,
6579-468: The Royal Garden, and also other objects of natural history, such as minerals and ores, that were not found in French museums. On 7 January 1786, his second son, Antoine, was born, and Lamarck chose Antoine Laurent de Jussieu , Bernard de Jussieu's nephew, as the boy's godfather. On 21 April the following year, Charles René, Lamarck's third son, was born. René Louiche Desfontaines , a professor of botany at
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#17328581083286708-404: The Royal Garden, was the boy's godfather, and Lamarck's elder sister, Marie Charlotte Pelagie De Monet, was the godmother. In 1788, Buffon's successor at the position of Intendant of the Royal Garden, Charles-Claude Flahaut de la Billaderie, comte d'Angiviller , created a position for Lamarck, with a yearly salary of 1,000 francs, as the keeper of the herbarium of the Royal Garden. In 1790, at
6837-871: The Supreme Court's holding that state legislation forbidding bakers from working more than ten hours a day or sixty hours a week violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by infringing on the individual's liberty of contract , famously wrote: "The Fourteenth Amendment does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer's Social Statics." Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck ( / l ə ˈ m ɑːr k / ; French: [ʒɑ̃batist lamaʁk] ),
6966-467: The anatomy to change in isolation from the others, and argued that the fossil record showed patterns of catastrophic extinctions followed by repopulation, rather than gradual change over time. He also noted that drawings of animals and animal mummies from Egypt , which were thousands of years old, showed no signs of change when compared with modern animals. The strength of Cuvier's arguments and his scientific reputation helped keep transmutational ideas out of
7095-528: The ark clams ( Arcidae ), the sea hares ( Aplysiidae ), and the cockles ( Cardiidae ). The International Plant Names Index gives 58 records, including a number of well-known genera such as the mosquito fern ( Azolla ). The honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera lamarckii is named after Lamarck, as well as the bluefire jellyfish ( Cyaneia lamarckii ). A number of plants have also been named after him, including Amelanchier lamarckii (juneberry), Digitalis lamarckii , and Aconitum lamarckii , as well as
7224-585: The army after being injured in 1766, and returned to his medical studies. Lamarck developed a particular interest in botany, and later, after he published the three-volume work Flore françoise (1778), he gained membership of the French Academy of Sciences in 1779. Lamarck became involved in the Jardin des Plantes and was appointed to the Chair of Botany in 1788. When the French National Assembly founded
7353-415: The assembly of professors for the museum for a period of one year. In 1797, Charlotte died, and he married Julie Mallet the following year; she died in 1819. In his first six years as professor, Lamarck published only one paper, in 1798, on the influence of the moon on the Earth's atmosphere. Lamarck began as an essentialist who believed species were unchanging; however, after working on the molluscs of
7482-514: The belief that every species has essential characteristics that are unalterable, a concept which had developed from medieval Aristotelian metaphysics , and that fit well with natural theology ; and the development of the new anti-Aristotelian approach to modern science : as the Enlightenment progressed, evolutionary cosmology and the mechanical philosophy spread from the physical sciences to natural history . Naturalists began to focus on
7611-535: The best surviving explanation of the ideas of the Greek Epicurean philosophers. It describes the development of the cosmos, the Earth, living things, and human society through purely naturalistic mechanisms, without any reference to supernatural involvement. De rerum natura would influence the cosmological and evolutionary speculations of philosophers and scientists during and after the Renaissance . This view
7740-427: The case with palms and vines, (which constitute) the last stage of plants, in their relation to snails and shellfish, (which constitute) the (lowest) stage of animals. It is also the case with monkeys, creatures combining in themselves cleverness and perception, in their relation to man, the being who has the ability to think and to reflect. The preparedness (for transformation) that exists on either side, at each stage of
7869-420: The child of a different type of animal (probably a fish), because man needs prolonged nursing to live. In the late nineteenth century, Anaximander was hailed as the "first Darwinist", but this characterization is no longer commonly agreed. Anaximander's hypothesis could be considered "evolution" in a sense, although not a Darwinian one. Empedocles argued that what we call birth and death in animals are just
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#17328581083287998-445: The classical four elements . During Lamarck's lifetime, he became controversial, attacking the more enlightened chemistry proposed by Lavoisier . He also came into conflict with the widely respected palaeontologist Georges Cuvier , who was not a supporter of evolution. According to Peter J. Bowler , Cuvier "ridiculed Lamarck's theory of transformation and defended the fixity of species." According to Martin J. S. Rudwick : Cuvier
8127-426: The course of many generations, producing races and even new species, a description that anticipated in general terms the concept of natural selection. Maupertuis' ideas were in opposition to the influence of early taxonomists like John Ray . In the late 17th century, Ray had given the first formal definition of a biological species, which he described as being characterized by essential unchanging features, and stated
8256-483: The culturally Greek Byzantine Empire ). In the Islamic Golden Age of the 8th to the 13th centuries, philosophers explored ideas about natural history. These ideas included transmutation from non-living to living: "from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, and from animal to man." In the medieval Islamic world, the scholar al-Jāḥiẓ wrote his Book of Animals in the 9th century. Conway Zirkle , writing about
8385-417: The days of the Genesis 1 creation narrative and 24 hour days that humans experience (arguing that "we know [the days of creation] are different from the ordinary day of which we are familiar") before describing what could be called an early form of theistic evolution : The things [God] had potentially created... [came] forth in the course of time on different days according to their different kinds... [and]
8514-400: The direct or instantaneous Creation of animals and plants appeared to be taught in Genesis, Augustine read this in the light of primary causation and the gradual development from the imperfect to the perfect of Aristotle. This most influential teacher thus handed down to his followers opinions which closely conform to the progressive views of those theologians of the present day who have accepted
8643-410: The divine art, impressed upon things, by which these things are moved to a determinate end. It is as if the shipbuilder were able to give to timbers that by which they would move themselves to take the form of a ship." In the first half of the 17th century, René Descartes ' mechanical philosophy encouraged the use of the metaphor of the universe as a machine, a concept that would come to characterise
8772-602: The establishment of evolutionary biology , studies of mutation and genetic diversity in natural populations, combined with biogeography and systematics , led to sophisticated mathematical and causal models of evolution. Palaeontology and comparative anatomy allowed more detailed reconstructions of the evolutionary history of life . After the rise of molecular genetics in the 1950s, the field of molecular evolution developed, based on protein sequences and immunological tests, and later incorporating RNA and DNA studies. The gene-centred view of evolution rose to prominence in
8901-536: The evolutionary ideas of Lamarck, Grant, and Vestiges . Although Charles Lyell opposed scriptural geology, he also believed in the immutability of species, and in his Principles of Geology , he criticized Lamarck's theories of development. Idealists such as Louis Agassiz and Richard Owen believed that each species was fixed and unchangeable because it represented an idea in the mind of the creator. They believed that relationships between species could be discerned from developmental patterns in embryology, as well as in
9030-413: The expression of genes , such as by methylation to modify DNA transcription ; this can be produced by changes in behaviour and environment. Many epigenetic changes are heritable to a degree. Thus, while DNA itself is not directly altered by the environment and behavior except through selection, the relationship of the genotype to the phenotype can be altered, even across generations, by experience within
9159-484: The fathers, since it relieved the Almighty of making, Adam of naming, and Noah of living in the ark with these innumerable despised species. In Augustine's De Genesi contra Manichæos , on Genesis he says: "To suppose that God formed man from the dust with bodily hands is very childish. ... God neither formed man with bodily hands nor did he breathe upon him with throat and lips." Augustine suggests in other work his theory of
9288-598: The field of transgenerational epigenetics mean that Lamarck was to an extent correct, or not. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born in Bazentin , Picardy , northern France, as the 11th child in an impoverished aristocratic family. Male members of the Lamarck family had traditionally served in the French army. Lamarck's eldest brother was killed in combat at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom , and two other brothers were still in service when Lamarck
9417-399: The field, not, indeed, actually, but 'before it sprung up in the earth,' that is, potentially... All things were not distinguished and adorned together, not from a want of power on God's part, as requiring time in which to work, but that due order might be observed in the instituting of the world. He saw that the autonomy of nature was a sign of God's goodness, and detected no conflict between
9546-425: The final necessary effect of surrounding conditions on life." Charles Coulston Gillispie , a historian of science, has written "life is a purely physical phenomenon in Lamarck", and argued that Lamarck's views should not be confused with the vitalist school of thought. The second component of Lamarck's theory of evolution was the adaptation of organisms to their environment. This could move organisms upward from
9675-400: The first theoretical frameworks of organic evolution . While this theory was generally rejected during his lifetime, Stephen Jay Gould argues that Lamarck was the "primary evolutionary theorist", in that his ideas, and the way in which he structured his theory, set the tone for much of the subsequent thinking in evolutionary biology, through to the present day. Developments in epigenetics ,
9804-408: The first to use the term biology in its modern sense . In Hydrogéologie , Lamarck advocated a steady-state geology based on a strict uniformitarianism . He argued that global currents tended to flow from east to west, and continents eroded on their eastern borders, with the material carried across to be deposited on the western borders. Thus, the Earth's continents marched steadily westward around
9933-490: The first, and second, and third day, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? And that the first day was, as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? And again, that one
10062-448: The fixity of biological species and Taoist philosophers speculated that species had developed differing attributes in response to differing environments. Taoism regards humans, nature and the heavens as existing in a state of "constant transformation" known as the Tao , in contrast with the more static view of nature typical of Western thought. Lucretius ' poem De rerum natura provides
10191-417: The fluids in organs inheriting more complex forms and functions, thus passing on these traits to the organism's descendants. This was a reversal from Lamarck's previous view, published in his Memoirs of Physics and Natural History (1797), in which he briefly refers to the immutability of species. Lamarck stressed two main themes in his biological work (neither of them to do with soft inheritance). The first
10320-466: The fossil record, but that these relationships represented an underlying pattern of divine thought, with progressive creation leading to increasing complexity and culminating in humanity. Owen developed the idea of "archetypes" in the Divine mind that would produce a sequence of species related by anatomical homologies, such as vertebrate limbs. Owen led a public campaign that successfully marginalized Grant in
10449-508: The fourth and fifth centuries. ...[Gregory of Nyssa] taught that Creation was potential. God imparted to matter its fundamental properties and laws. The objects and completed forms of the Universe developed gradually out of chaotic material. In the fourth century AD, the bishop and theologian Augustine of Hippo followed Origen in arguing that Christians should read the Genesis creation story allegorically. In his book De Genesi ad litteram ( On
10578-417: The globe. That year, he also published Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants , in which he drew out his theory on evolution. He believed that all life was organized in a vertical chain, with gradation between the lowest forms and the highest forms of life, thus demonstrating a path to progressive developments in nature. In his own work, Lamarck had favored the then-more traditional theory based on
10707-444: The grass genus Lamarckia . The International Plant Names Index gives 116 records of plant species named after Lamarck. Among the marine species, no fewer than 103 species or genera carry the epithet " lamarcki ", " lamarckii " or " lamarckiana ", but many have since become synonyms. Marine species with valid names include: On invertebrate classification : History of evolutionary thought Evolutionary thought,
10836-473: The height of the French Revolution , Lamarck changed the name of the Royal Garden from Jardin du Roi to Jardin des Plantes , a name that did not imply such a close association with King Louis XVI . Lamarck had worked as the keeper of the herbarium for five years before he was appointed curator and professor of invertebrate zoology at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in 1793. During his time at
10965-407: The herbarium, Lamarck's wife gave birth to three more children before dying on 27 September 1792. With the official title of "Professeur d'Histoire naturelle des Insectes et des Vers", Lamarck received a salary of nearly 2,500 francs per year. The following year, on 9 October, he married Charlotte Reverdy, who was 30 years his junior. On 26 September 1794 Lamarck was appointed to serve as secretary of
11094-452: The highest forms of life, was but the result of natural processes." Lamarck is known largely for his views on evolution, which have been dismissed in favour of developments in Darwinism . His theory of evolution only achieved fame after the publication of Charles Darwin 's On the Origin of Species (1859), which spurred critics of Darwin's new theory to fall back on Lamarckian evolution as
11223-498: The history of natural selection in 1941, said that an excerpt from this work was the only relevant passage he had found from an Arabian scholar. He provided a quotation describing the struggle for existence, citing a Spanish translation of this work: "Every weak animal devours those weaker than itself. Strong animals cannot escape being devoured by other animals stronger than they. And in this respect, men do not differ from animals, some with respect to others, although they do not arrive at
11352-568: The idea that biologic species were fixed and possessed unchangeable essential characteristics did not become important until the beginning of biological taxonomy in the 17th and 18th centuries. Aristotle, the most influential of the Greek philosophers in Europe , was a student of Plato and is also the earliest natural historian whose work has been preserved in any real detail. His writings on biology resulted from his research into natural history on and around
11481-538: The island of Lesbos , and have survived in the form of four books, usually known by their Latin names, De anima ( On the Soul ), Historia animalium ( History of Animals ), De generatione animalium ( Generation of Animals ), and De partibus animalium ( On the Parts of Animals ). Aristotle's works contain accurate observations, fitted into his own theories of the body's mechanisms. However, for Charles Singer , "Nothing
11610-420: The ladder of progress into new and distinct forms with local adaptations. It could also drive organisms into evolutionary blind alleys, where the organism became so finely adapted that no further change could occur. Lamarck argued that this adaptive force was powered by the interaction of organisms with their environment, by the use and disuse of certain characteristics. The last clause of this law introduces what
11739-423: The last catastrophic episode proposed by Cuvier to the biblical flood . From 1830 to 1833, geologist Charles Lyell published his multi-volume work Principles of Geology , which, building on Hutton's ideas, advocated a uniformitarian alternative to the catastrophic theory of geology. Lyell claimed that, rather than being the products of cataclysmic (and possibly supernatural) events, the geologic features of
11868-470: The later development of insects out of carrion, and the adoption of the old emanation or evolution theory, showing that "certain very small animals may not have been created on the fifth and sixth days, but may have originated later from putrefying matter." Concerning Augustine's De Trinitate ( On the Trinity ), White wrote that Augustine "develops at length the view that in the creation of living beings there
11997-421: The laws that governed the universe. In this sense it was less completely materialistic than the ideas of radicals like Grant, but its implication that humans were only the last step in the ascent of animal life incensed many conservative thinkers. The high profile of the public debate over Vestiges , with its depiction of evolution as a progressive process , would greatly influence the perception of Darwin's theory
12126-410: The lieutenancy. Lamarck's company was left exposed to the direct artillery fire of their enemies, and was quickly reduced to just 14 men—with no officers. One of the men suggested that the puny, 17-year-old volunteer should assume command and order a withdrawal from the field; although Lamarck accepted command, he insisted they remain where they had been posted until relieved. When their colonel reached
12255-500: The lifetime of an individual. This has led to calls for biology to reconsider Lamarckian processes in evolution in light of modern advances in molecular biology. In his book Philosophie zoologique , Lamarck referred to God as the "sublime author of nature". Lamarck's religious views are examined in the book Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution (1901) by Alpheus Packard . According to Packard from Lamarck's writings, he may be regarded as
12384-401: The mainstream for decades. In Great Britain , the philosophy of natural theology remained influential. William Paley 's 1802 book Natural Theology with its famous watchmaker analogy had been written at least in part as a response to the transmutational ideas of Erasmus Darwin. Geologists influenced by natural theology, such as Buckland and Sedgwick, made a regular practice of attacking
12513-449: The mingling and separations of elements which cause the countless "tribes of mortal things". Specifically, the first animals and plants were like disjointed parts of the ones we see today, some of which survived by joining in different combinations, and then intermixing during the development of the embryo, and where "everything turned out as it would have if it were on purpose, there the creatures survived, being accidentally compounded in
12642-465: The monkeys," in a process by which "species become more numerous". In chapter 1 he writes: "This world with all the created things in it has a certain order and solid construction. It shows nexuses between causes and things caused, combinations of some parts of creation with others, and transformations of some existent things into others, in a pattern that is both remarkable and endless." The Muqaddimah also states in chapter 6: We explained there that
12771-404: The motion and orbit of the stars ... Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual
12900-408: The movements of fluids in living organisms naturally drove them to evolve toward ever greater levels of complexity: The rapid motion of fluids will etch canals between delicate tissues. Soon their flow will begin to vary, leading to the emergence of distinct organs. The fluids themselves, now more elaborate, will become more complex, engendering a greater variety of secretions and substances composing
13029-416: The newly recognized factors of symbiogenesis and horizontal gene transfer introduced yet more complexity into evolutionary theory. Discoveries in evolutionary biology have made a significant impact not just within the traditional branches of biology, but also in other academic disciplines (for example: anthropology and psychology ) and on society at large. Several cultures across the world seem to have
13158-458: The next generation and produce slow adaptation to the environment. It was this secondary mechanism of adaptation through the inheritance of acquired characteristics that would become known as Lamarckism and would influence discussions of evolution into the 20th century. A radical British school of comparative anatomy that included the anatomist Robert Edmond Grant was closely in touch with Lamarck's French school of Transformationism . One of
13287-404: The ongoing spontaneous generation of simple living organisms through action on physical matter by a material life force. Lamarck ran against the modern chemistry promoted by Lavoisier (whose ideas he regarded with disdain), preferring to embrace a more traditional alchemical view of the elements as influenced primarily by earth, air, fire, and water. He asserted that once living organisms form,
13416-477: The organs. He argued that organisms thus moved from simple to complex in a steady, predictable way based on the fundamental physical principles of alchemy. In this view, simple organisms never disappeared because they were constantly being created by spontaneous generation in what has been described as a "steady-state biology". Lamarck saw spontaneous generation as being ongoing, with the simple organisms thus created being transmuted over time becoming more complex. He
13545-477: The patterns of extinction and faunal succession revealed by the fossil record. Knowledge of the fossil record continued to advance rapidly during the first few decades of the 19th century. By the 1840s, the outlines of the geologic timescale were becoming clear, and in 1841 John Phillips named three major eras, based on the predominant fauna of each: the Paleozoic , dominated by marine invertebrates and fish,
13674-613: The rapid acceptance of the general concept of evolution, but the specific mechanism he proposed, natural selection, was not widely accepted until it was revived by developments in biology that occurred during the 1920s through the 1940s. Before that time most biologists regarded other factors as responsible for evolution. Alternatives to natural selection suggested during " the eclipse of Darwinism " (c. 1880 to 1920) included inheritance of acquired characteristics ( neo-Lamarckism ), an innate drive for change ( orthogenesis ), and sudden large mutations ( saltationism ). Mendelian genetics ,
13803-403: The recognition that species change over time and the perceived understanding of how such processes work, has roots in antiquity—in the ideas of the ancient Greeks , Romans , Chinese , Church Fathers as well as in medieval Islamic science . With the beginnings of modern biological taxonomy in the late 17th century, two opposed ideas influenced Western biological thinking: essentialism ,
13932-487: The remains of their company, this display of courage and loyalty impressed him so much that Lamarck was promoted to officer on the spot. However, when one of his comrades playfully lifted him by the head, he sustained an inflammation in the lymphatic glands of the neck, and he was sent to Paris to receive treatment. He was awarded a commission and settled at his post in Monaco . There, he encountered Traité des plantes usuelles ,
14061-599: The rest of the earth [was] filled with its various kinds of creatures, [which] produced their appropriate forms in due time. Augustine deployed the concept of rationes seminales to blend the idea of divine creation with subsequent development. This idea "that forms of life had been transformed 'slowly over time ' " prompted Father Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, Professor of Theology at the Pontifical Santa Croce University in Rome, to claim that Augustine had suggested
14190-528: The rise of life from minute organisms living in mud to all of its modern diversity. In 1796, Georges Cuvier published his findings on the differences between living elephants and those found in the fossil record . His analysis identified mammoths and mastodons as distinct species, different from any living animal, and effectively ended a long-running debate over whether a species could become extinct. In 1788, James Hutton described gradual geological processes operating continuously over deep time . In
14319-503: The same extremes. In short, God has disposed some human beings as a cause of life for others, and likewise, he has disposed the latter as a cause of the death of the former." Al-Jāḥiẓ also wrote descriptions of food chains . Some of Ibn Khaldūn 's thoughts, according to some commentators, anticipate the biological theory of evolution. In 1377, Ibn Khaldūn wrote the Muqaddimah in which he asserted that humans developed from "the world of
14448-530: The seed of one species could never give rise to another. The ideas of Ray and other 17th-century taxonomists were influenced by natural theology and the argument from design. The word evolution (from the Latin evolutio , meaning "to unroll like a scroll") was initially used to refer to embryological development ; its first use in relation to development of species came in 1762, when Charles Bonnet used it for his concept of " pre-formation ," in which females carried
14577-476: The sentient world; and then ascended to intelligent and rational beings (emphasis added). Henry Fairfield Osborn wrote in his work on the history of evolutionary thought, From the Greeks to Darwin (1894): Among the Christian Fathers the movement towards a partly naturalistic interpretation of the order of Creation was made by Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth century, and was completed by Augustine in
14706-470: The social state. This granted, it follows that as man has been, and is still, deficient in those feelings which, by dictating just conduct, prevent the perpetual antagonism of individuals and their consequent disunion, some artificial agency is required by which their union may be maintained. Only by the process of adaptation itself can be produced that character which makes social equilibrium spontaneous." Despite its commonly being attributed to this book, it
14835-565: The study of cellular and physiological traits that are heritable by daughter cells and not caused by changes in the DNA sequence, have caused debate about whether a "neolamarckist" view of inheritance could be correct: Lamarck was not in a position to give a molecular explanation for his theory. Eva Jablonka and Marion Lamb , for example, call themselves neolamarckists. Reviewing the evidence, David Haig argued that any such mechanisms must themselves have evolved through natural selection. Darwin allowed
14964-448: The theory of adaptation or soft inheritance) was rejected by August Weismann in the 1880s when he developed a theory of inheritance in which germ plasm (the sex cells, later redefined as DNA), remained separate and distinct from the soma (the rest of the body); thus, nothing which happens to the soma may be passed on with the germ plasm. This model allegedly underlies the modern understanding of inheritance. Lamarck constructed one of
15093-446: The top French scientists of the day, mentored Lamarck, and helped him gain membership to the French Academy of Sciences in 1779 and a commission as a royal botanist in 1781, in which he traveled to foreign botanical gardens and museums. Lamarck's first son, André, was born on 22 April 1781, and he made his colleague André Thouin the child's godfather. In his two years of travel, Lamarck collected rare plants that were not available in
15222-504: The variability of species; the emergence of palaeontology with the concept of extinction further undermined static views of nature . In the early 19th century prior to Darwinism , Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) proposed his theory of the transmutation of species , the first fully formed theory of evolution . In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace published a new evolutionary theory, explained in detail in Darwin's On
15351-401: The whole of existence in (all) its simple and composite worlds is arranged in a natural order of ascent and descent, so that everything constitutes an uninterrupted continuum. The essences at the end of each particular stage of the worlds are by nature prepared to be transformed into the essence adjacent to them, either above or below them. This is the case with the simple material elements; it is
15480-440: The worlds, is meant when (we speak about) their connection. While most Christian theologians held that the natural world was part of an unchanging designed hierarchy, some theologians speculated that the world might have developed through natural processes. Thomas Aquinas expounded on Augustine of Hippo's early idea of theistic evolution On the day on which God created the heaven and the earth, He created also every plant of
15609-478: Was a French naturalist , biologist , academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws . Lamarck fought in the Seven Years' War against Prussia , and was awarded a commission for bravery on the battlefield. Posted to Monaco , Lamarck became interested in natural history and resolved to study medicine. He retired from
15738-460: Was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally. Gregory of Nyssa wrote: Scripture informs us that the Deity proceeded by
15867-476: Was clearly hostile to the materialistic overtones of current transformist theorizing, but it does not necessarily follow that he regarded species origin as supernatural; certainly he was careful to use neutral language to refer to the causes of the origins of new forms of life, and even of man. Lamarck gradually turned blind; he died in Paris on 18 December 1829. When he died, his family was so poor, they had to apply to
15996-566: Was in his teenaged years. Yielding to the wishes of his father, Lamarck enrolled in a Jesuit college in Amiens in the late 1750s. After his father died in 1760, Lamarck bought himself a horse, and rode across the country to join the French army, which was in Germany at the time. Lamarck showed great physical courage on the battlefield in the Seven Years' War with Prussia , and he was even nominated for
16125-499: Was in strong contrast with the views of Roman philosophers of the Stoic school such as Seneca the Younger and Pliny the Elder who had a strongly teleological view of the natural world that influenced Christian theology . Cicero reports that the peripatetic and Stoic view of nature as an agency concerned most basically with producing life "best fitted for survival" was taken for granted among
16254-509: Was not until his Principles of Biology of 1864 that Spencer coined the phrase " survival of the fittest ", which he would later apply to economics and biology. This could be described as a key tenet of so-called Social Darwinism , though Spencer and his book were not an advocate thereof. Economist Murray Rothbard called Social Statics "the greatest single work of libertarian political philosophy ever written." In Lochner v. New York , Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. , dissenting from
16383-470: Was something like a growth—that God is the ultimate author, but works through secondary causes; and finally argues that certain substances are endowed by God with the power of producing certain classes of plants and animals." Augustine implies that whatever science shows, the Bible must teach: Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about
16512-435: Was that the environment gives rise to changes in animals. He cited examples of blindness in moles, the presence of teeth in mammals and the absence of teeth in birds as evidence of this principle. The second principle was that life was structured in an orderly manner and that many different parts of all bodies make possible the organic movements of animals. Although he was not the first thinker to advocate organic evolution, he
16641-496: Was the first to develop a truly coherent evolutionary theory. He outlined his theories regarding evolution first in his Floreal lecture of 1800, and then in three later published works: Lamarck employed several mechanisms as drivers of evolution, drawn from the common knowledge of his day and from his own belief in the chemistry before Lavoisier . He used these mechanisms to explain the two forces he saw as constituting evolution: force driving animals from simple to complex forms and
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