1. Jean-Baptiste Lamark was one of the many people who had great influence over Darwin's development of his theory of Natural Selection.
2. Lamark was the first person to try to explain the process of evolution. He believed that a species would evolve along with the environment to adapt to any change that was occurred. Lamark developed the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics. This theory proposed that since physical change would make an animal better suited to its environment, these changes would be passed on to its offspring.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
3. Although his theory of inheritance of acquire characteristics was proven to be false, it paved way to other discoveries and theories that contributed to the evolutionary process. Theories from Lamark and Darwin were quite different but both led to the same conclusion. Both believed that evolution was the result of the development of species changing through their environment over time. Lamark constantly mentions the possibility of natural selection in his writings which played a part in the evolutionary process.
4. Darwin most likely would have developed his theory of Natural Selection without the influence of Lamark. Although Lamark was the first person to attempt to explain the evolutionary process, there always would have been another person to develop this theory. Darwin would still have reached the same conclusion that environmental change would cause species to evolve over long periods of time.
5. When Darwin was starting to make progress in his theories of evolution, he was afraid to publish his studies on the subject. During the 1800's, many believed that the explanation of life was caused by God and that God created man and animals. Questioning the Bible was a controversial subject and many avoided the theory of evolution. Many believed in the fixity of species and that man and animals can never change. Darwin rarely shared his thoughts on evolution with others and this affected his publication of his book.
Although Lamarck and Darwin had very different opinions about evolution I think you did a great job connecting them together.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was reading about Lamarck I came to the same conclusion, that Darwin would have published his book without Lamarck's influence.
Darwin and other scientists sought to explain how evolution happens. Just like any other scientist, Darwin was thinking about this question and he would have published his book "Origin of Species", with or without Lamarck's influence.
You said regarding Lamark: "He believed that a species would evolve along with the environment to adapt to any change that was occurred."
ReplyDeleteBut it does. :-) However this doesn't define Lamark's work... it defines Darwin's. Darwin recognized that populations (species) evolve, not individuals, while Lamark thought that individuals evolve. Big difference! But it is indeed true that both Lamark and Darwin recognized that the key selective factor in evolution was the changing environment.
Great discussion on the influence of the church on Darwin and his work.