Invertebrate Zoology, Lamarckism, and Their Influences on the Sciences and on Society
Overview
The ideas of naturalist and systematist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) influenced the notions surrounding evolution and also sparked social Lamarckism, which developed years after his death. He was also responsible for making a respectable field out of the study of invertebrates. On the evolutionary front, Lamarck propounded evolution and the mutability of species, but is best known for his "use and disuse" hypothesis. This hypothesis states that traits acquired during an individual's life span can be passed from generation to generation. After his death, many writers and philosophers rallied behind and expanded upon Lamarck's equivocal belief that animals have control over their evolutionary course. The product was social Lamarckism, an unorganized but influential movement.
Background
Lamarck died some thirty years before the publication of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection in 1859. While many of Lamarck's ideas were later found to be misguided, his belief in evolution and the mutability of species helped set the stage for their future scientific consideration.
His scientific career took a turn from botany, in which he had gained a solid reputation, when his employer, France's Jardin des Plantes, reorganized into the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle).
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