Darwin vs. Lamarck to Begin

Darwin vs. Lamarck

To begin with a brief overview of the scientists, let's begin by considering Mr. Darwin. According to Wikipedia (2005), after years of studying a variety of organisms, Charles Darwin, in 1859, wrote The Origin of Species. This was a very popular book, which held the famous and widely-studied Darwinian theory known as "survival of the fittest." The initial printing sold out on the first day of publication, but Darwin's theory eventually lost some of its original popularity. Although many field naturalists preserved Darwin's emphasis on the role of geographical factors on evolution, many were later tempted by the theory of Lamarckism, which has stemmed much discussion on the Darwin vs. Lamarck controversy. Lamarckism is a theory named after Jean Baptist de Lamarck, who was a French naturalist that published Zoological Philosophy in 1809 (Wikipedia 2005). In his view, organic beings constituted a ladder of life from simplest to complex animals, with humans at the top rung. Lamarck did little in the way of explaining the origin of this ladder, but he did offer an explanation for how organisms change over time, thus turning the ladder into what we might call an escalator of being.

It is important to examine the differences between scientific theories, as scientists and science educators are in agreement as to the importance of an understanding of evolutionary principles as the unifying theme for acquisition and internalization of information about the origin, history, and diversity of life on earth. However, despite this agreement, evidence from various sources suggests that indicates that many students leave their courses still significantly confused with the differences between various theories. According to Richard Firenze (1997), "It appears these misconceptions can be divided into two major categories: 1) epistemological misconceptions - those dealing with the nature of science, that is, evolution is only a theory, evolution has never been proven correct, or, because biologists cannot see species evolve, evolution is not a true science, and so on; and 2) content misconceptions - those dealing with the process of evolution, that is, humans evolved from monkeys, through evolution organisms get what they need, organisms progress from 'lower' to 'higher' forms, and so on." The differences between Darwin and Lamarck's theories primarily stem from the second category, under content, dealing with how "organisms progress from 'lower' to 'higher' forms'" (Firenze 1997).