Charles Darwin vs. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

 Mark Glen      

Anthro 101

1)         Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was in similarity with Charles Darwin in that they were both evolutionists. However, Lamarck proposed evolution through natural processes over fifty years before Darwin would become well known for his book Origin of Species. So in that respect, Darwin was influenced in a positive way.

 2)       Though Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was not very well respected among his colleagues for his contributions to science, he did however leave an imprint on the science world as a whole. His strong belief was that evolution occurs over a long period of time, due to nature's requirement of particular traits from the subject. Elaborately, if an animal's environment changes, the animal will be forced to adapt to the changes. Over time (generations), the animal's offspring will have become more equipped with the trait that is most often used and those that aren't used as often will have either shrunk or disappeared entirely. Either way his colleagues felt about his proposal, it was still eventually a great contribution to science.
                    -    http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html

3)        "If the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be 

different." 

      Lamarck believed that, if a parent animal's behavior began to change that it was because of the result of environmental changes. With him there was no survival of the fittest because there was no extinction. His belief was simple yet complex; the changes that the parent had undergone would be improved alterations to their traits and therefore passed down to their children. Darwin was more elaborate in his beliefs about animals changing to survive with the environment. This belief was even simpler and more feasible; subjects with more pre-adapted traits we selected to survive by the environment, simply because they possessed the ability to. Hence, they were able to produce offspring with their traits and continue the survival of a species. 

         "Individuals do not evolve.  Populations do."

         Lamarck, in believing that small environmental changes occur that make the subject adapt, in turn also believed that evolution occurred in the individual first. That the adapted changes would become woven into the fabric of inheritance and continue to evolve the species into a more complex and perfect one. Again, Darwin did partially agree with Lamarck, but in being elaborate, he furthered his study and made more sense of the idea that small changes took place and were passed down. To him, small changes did indeed occur, but randomly on their own; not as the result of some environmental change. Those changes that are proven to be necessary for the host's survival will remain with its host. All other changes will eventually disappear and be discarded. -Natural selection.

4)     I do believe that Darwin could have made his theory of Natural Selection without the works of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Darwin's approach when studying was of more common-sense and was more feasible. He's demonstrated that animals do adapt to their environments, just like Lamarck did. However, he also showed that this occurrence is a random event. If the environment caused evolution within generations, our world would be over populated because no species would ever die off, younger generations would have noticeable differences among their parents and grandparents.

5)    Darwin always had respect for the church and even attended a local church regularly. However, the church didn't agree with his outlook on the evolving man. They saw man as one of the many designs of God. Whereas Darwin, having the opportunity to study the history of man began to doubt that he was of a design instead of a product of natural survival. When he published his book Origin of Species, he was still not in disbelief that there was a god, he just had doubts. As he was claimed to have been an atheist he cleared the air and announced that he was really just agnostic.