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JEAN-BAPTISTE DE LAMARCK (1744-1829). A DISPUTE ON THE MECHANISM OF EVOLUTION. ON THE BICENTENARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF 'PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE' (1809) (Polish title - below)

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Bednarczyk A.

Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki

2009

vol. 54

issue 3-4

31-98

( Title in Polish - 'Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck. Spór wokól mechanizmu ewolucji. W dwusetna rocznice ogloszenia dziela 'Philosophie zoologique' (1809)'). The author of the paper has made an attempt to prove that a teleological interpretation of Lamarck's theory is false. It is unwarranted to attribute to Lamarck the idea that a living organism has an internal tendency to complicate its organization and to improve its mode of functioning; such a concept is not confirmed by existing textual evidence, and it is also in direct conflict with Lamarck's undisputed mechanicism. The proof presented in the paper begins with an outline of the history of this false interpretation, including the opinions of Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin. As the tendency is ascribed also to nature itself, the next phase of the proof has involved reconstructing the fully ateleological notion of nature to which Lamarck subscribed. Supposed evidence for the tendency is said to be provided by the existence of a series in which the organization of a living body grows from the simplest to the most complex. That is why the author of the current paper has analysed the concept of 'série animale' used by Lamarck in some detail, in order to demonstrate that it is typological in character, and has nothing to do with the tendency that is allegedly inherent in the nature of an organism. Also presented in the paper, in connection with the construction of the series, is the problem of spontaneous generation, which was made complicated by Lamarck. Finally, the very notion of tendency is analysed and confronted with Lamarck's text; the latter in fact does not contain any explanations that would be teleological in the strict sense of the word. The analysis has enabled the author of the current paper to conduct an exegesis of the fragment of Lamarck's text which might give grounds to it being construed in terms of an explanation resorting to the notion of tendency, and possible interpretations of that fragment have been presented. The paper ends with a description of the mechanism which, according to Lamarck, is responsible for the rise in complexity of an organism that has the nature of a machine; such a mechanism leaves no place for any tendency to be in operation.

PETER SIMON PALLAS (1741-1811). THE STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIC WORLD AND THE NOTION OF SPECIES. ON THE BICENTENARY OF HIS DEATH (Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811). Struktura swiata organicznego i pojecie gatunku. W dwusetna rocznice smierci)

100%

Bednarczyk A.

Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki

2010

vol. 55

issue 2

An attempt has been made in the current paper to dispel two myths concerning Peter Simon Pallas, myths which have led historians of biology to distort the picture of some of the general biological ideas developed by that eminent naturalist of the Age of Enlightenment. The first point dealt with in the paper involves the myth that Pallas had allegedly drafted a 'tree of life' diagram, one of the many graphic representations of this kind to appear in later times, illustrating the structure of the organic world. The tree, of which Pallas merely left a short description (but not a depiction), took - in the articles of authors who wrote about it - a variety of graphic forms (largely dependent on the authors' pictorial inventiveness), with all the authors assuring the readers that they illustrated their reasoning with the help of Pallas's tree of life, but never mentioning that it was they themselves who had drawn it. The current paper presents a juxtaposition of a number of such diagrams, drawn by different authors: the great diversity of the diagrams is sufficient proof that the existence of one, original 'Pallas tree' is just a myth. Another aspect of the myth has to do with the view that the tree supposedly illustrated phylogenetic dependencies - in fact, Pallas described affinity relationships between groups in the animal world. The present paper investigates how the 'tree of life' myth has developed, and reveals the mechanism that has most likely led to the myth being perpetuated in writings on the history of biology. The second issue discussed in the current paper relates to the myth of how Pallas's general views on biology allegedly evolved. The naturalist was supposed to have moved from transformism (characteristic of early stages of his work) to the idea of the immutability of species, formed in the period of his full scientific maturity. The current paper proves, inter alia on the basis of little known and not easily accessible writings by the scholar, that Pallas espoused the Age of Enlightenment's deism, an important element of which was the idea of the immutability of species, to which Pallas steadfastly subscribed. On the other hand, the analysis presented in the paper has revealed that Pallas seemed to consider the problem of species on two planes: that of free-roaming wild species, which remained absolutely immutable, and that of domesticated species, which did manifest some mutability, largely sustained by human effort but never transgressing species boundaries. It was also - and only - under domestication that monsters appeared. Pallas did contemplate, not without much hesitation, teratogenesis as a possible mechanism behind speciation, but - given the lethal character of monstrous modifications - he did not treat it as the real mechanism of speciation.

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2 Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki

1 2010

1 2009

2 Bednarczyk A.

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JEAN-BAPTISTE DE LAMARCK (1744-1829). A DISPUTE ON THE MECHANISM OF EVOLUTION. ON THE BICENTENARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF 'PHILOSOPHIE ZOOLOGIQUE' (1809) (Polish title - below)

PETER SIMON PALLAS (1741-1811). THE STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIC WORLD AND THE NOTION OF SPECIES. ON THE BICENTENARY OF HIS DEATH (Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1811). Struktura swiata organicznego i pojecie gatunku. W dwusetna rocznice smierci)