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...