The individual who mostly influenced and contributed to
Darwin’s development and theory of Natural selection is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck contributed the theory when
environments changed, organisms had to change their behavior to survive. Lamarck
theorized, as organisms adapted to their surroundings, nature also drove them
inexorably upward from simple forms to increasingly complex ones (www.understandingevolution.org). Similarly to Darwin, Lamarck suggested that
life took on its present form through natural processes as opposed to
miraculous interventions.
The point directly affected by Lamarck’s theory to ‘How does
evolution work?” is, if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or
adaptive to that environment will be different.
Lamarck’s theory is, when the environment changed, organisms had to
change their behavior to survive (www.understandingevolution.org).
I do not believe Darwin would have developed his theory
without the influence of Lamarck’s evolution theory. Lamarck was a founding professor of the Musee
National d’Histoire Naturelle as an expert on invertebrates. He was one the
first evolution theorists to argue that life was not fixed. Lamarck provided
initial theories to be further explored and expanded upon.
Darwin’s theory directly dispelled the church’s ideas that
God created all miraculously. He was
hesitant to cause a disturbance in the church against the Naturalists. He did not want to be outspoken related to a
theory against God. Eventually after 23 years, he published Origins of Species.
Reference: www.understandingevolution.org
I definitely agree with your comments on Lamarck. His and Darwin's beliefs were closely related, especially the idea of adaptation. Both of the naturalists were realistic, as they did not believe in miraculous events as the cause of our huge differences in the species once lived on Earth before us. Lamarck was obviously one of Darwin's biggest influences.
ReplyDeleteYour description of Lamarck's work could also be used to describe Darwin's' and yet we know that these two theories had specific differences that made Lamarck's incorrect and Darwin's accurate. More specifics on Lamarck's theory and mechanism to highlight these differences would have clarified Lamarck's specific influence on Darwin to your readers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your choice on bullet points but there are actually several that apply to Lamarck, including the importance of heritability and reproduction to the process of evolution.
While I agree that Lamarck was influential, I don't think I would go so far as to say he was indispensable to Darwin. There were many scientists of that time working on the idea of evolution. Lamarck may have been the first to propose a mechanism, but he was not the only one to offer input.
Good points in your last section but you don't explain why he didn't want to "create a disturbance" in the church. What repercussions might he have experienced if he did this? Also, did he really think his theory went "against God"? Or did he see this as better explaining the natural world without touching at all on God's role in this process?