Introduction to Anthropology
Charles Darwin & Jean Baptiste Lamarck
1. The one person I would say that was very influential to Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection is Jean Baptiste Lamarck.
2. Jean Baptiste Lamarck's believed in evolution. He was a French botanist and invertebrate zoologist who formulated one of the earliest theories of evolution. His contributions to science included work in meteorology, botany, chemistry, geology, and paleontology, but he is best known in his work in invertebrate zoology and his theoretical work on evolution.
Http://library.thinkquest.org/27407/lamarck.htm
3. Lamarck's theory actually explains how organisms adapt to change in their environment, basically they change when their surroundings changes. Darwin says that the strongest organism adapts to their environment and can be apart of any environment if strong enough. With both Lamarck's and Darwin's ideas they weren't very different, so they had no problem coming up with almost the same idea.
4. I believe that Darwin could not develop his theories on his own without help from Lamarck. Since his discoveries or findings were connected to Lamarck, and Lamarck was the first to come up with evolution, Darwin wouldn't have any further thoughts without Lamarck. A big reason I also read about, was that Darwin's theory depended on natural selection, which in theory actually never changes.
5.The church actually never changes their ideas or beliefs about evolution theory. The church didn't think his book "Origin of Species" would be considered but accepted as a scholastic book, which I believe was a great achievement for Darwin.
I also feel that Lamark had a tremendous effect on Darwin's studies. The fact alone that Lamark was also describing a process in which organisms evolve in order to adapt to traits that are needed to survive. I also thought it was amazing how if certain traits are not used, then these traits diminish.
ReplyDeleteAs for the church and its non-acceptance of Darwin's book, you are right about how they did not think that this book would amount to anything. I am sure they were surprised when this book received more aclaim than they thought it would get.
Evidence in Darwin's notes and autobiography show otherwise that he could have developed natural selection on his own.
ReplyDeletehttp://darwin-online.org.uk/
The church has changed their ideas on evolution and more recently has had more acceptance.
http://www.christianpost.com/news/catholics-accept-evolution-guided-by-god-7632/
I agree that Lamark had a very important influence on Darwin, but didn't Darwin basically find the same thing in the Galapagos? It seems like Darwin just used Lamark to say "hey look someone else says it too!" Either way, very well writen, I was happy to read it.
ReplyDeleteYour post is very well written and very informative! I agree that Lamark was probably influential to Darwin, however I agree with the two above comments and I'm not really convinced that Lamark was THE most influential to Darwin.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post 100%. We agreed on many points of our blog and you went further into detail on the person who we were supposed to focus on, as well as Darwin.
ReplyDeleteNice job, and WELL PLAYED=]
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ReplyDeleteThe key difference between Lamarck and Darwin comes down to the issue of the evolution of an individual vs. the evolution of a population. Lamarck argued that individuals could change during their lifetime in response to environmental change. We know that this doesn't work given our system of genetics, but even scientists of that time understood that this mechanism wouldn't work.
ReplyDeleteDarwin argued that only populations can change, not individuals (this is one of the bullet points). In a way, by proposing a mechanism that didn't work, Lamarck served as a negative influence, showing Darwin what didn't work.
I wouldn't go so far as to argue that Lamarck was absolutely necessary for Darwin's work, since MANY scientists were toying with the concept of evolution during this time. Lamarck wasn't the first, but he certainly made a contribution, but I suspect Darwin would have developed his ideas eventually regardless.
I see what you are arguing in the final paragraph, but what impact did the church have before Darwin published? Why did Darwin delay publishing for more than 20 years? What were his concerns.
Good start to the class.