ARCH 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Zoonomia, Fleeming Jenkin, Atheism
11 Apr 2016
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History of evolutionary theory: 250 year revolution in thought. Essentialism: typological thinking, universe consists of a limited number of natural kinds (essences, types), the components of which are essentially identical and sharply separated from the components of other kinds. Charles darwin: accepted evolution early, mechanism of evolution outlined in 1842, darwinian evolution = descent with modiuication. Species produced by subdivision of existing species: descent from a common ancestor, all species related, three theories of history of life: separate creation, transformation, evolution. Natural selection: variation: individuals differ in their genes, morphology and behavior due to mutation and meiosis. Independently formulated theory of natural selection in 1858. Joint presentation of theory with darwin in 1858. Evolutionists before darwin: charles darwin and alfred russel wallace were not the uirst evolutionists, buffon, lamarck, erasmus darwin, grant. Buffon: discussed ape/human similarities, common ancestry, accepted organic change, but no coherent mechanism, discussed concepts similar to uniformitarianism. Suggested that earth is much older than 6000.
