Lamarck Ascending! A Review of Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology. Edited by Snait B. Gissis and Eva Jablonka, MIT Press, 2011

Lamarck Ascending! A Review of Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology. Edited by Snait B. Gissis and Eva Jablonka, MIT Press, 2011

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Lamarck Ascending! A Review of Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology. Edited by Snait B. Gissis and Eva Jablonka, MIT Press, 2011

dc.contributor.author	Haig, David Addison
dc.date.accessioned	2012-07-16T13:44:58Z
dc.date.issued	2011
dc.identifier.citation	Haig, David Addison. 2011. Lamarck ascending! A review of Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology, edited by Snait B. Gissis and Eva Jablonka, MIT Press, 2011. Philosophy and Theory in Biology 3:e204.	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1949-0739	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9131556
dc.description.abstract	Transformations of Lamarckism is an edited volume arising from a workshop to commemorate the bicentenary of the publication of Philosophie Zoologique. The contributed chapters discuss the history of Lamarckism, present new developments in biology that could be considered to vindicate Lamarck, and argue for a revision, if not a revolution, in evolutionary theory. My review argues that twentieth and twenty-first century conceptions of Lamarckism can be considered a reaction to August Weismann’s uncompromising rejection of the inheritance of acquired characters in the late nineteenth century. Weismann rejected the inheritance of acquired characters both as a proximate mechanism of heredity and as an ultimate cause of adaptation. I argue that Weismann’s proximate claim is still valid for the kind of mechanism that he had in mind but that the inheritance of acquired characters has come to refer to many different processes, some of which undoubtedly do occur. However, processes of physiological adaptation and adaptive plasticity, even if transgenerational, do not challenge Weismann’s claim about the ultimate causes of adaptation because these processes can be understood as evolving by natural selection. Finally, I discuss some of the emotional and aesthetic reasons why many find Lamarckism an attractive alternative to hard-core neo-Darwinism.	en_US
dc.description.sponsorship	Organismic and Evolutionary Biology	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.publisher	University of Michigan Libraries	en_US
dc.relation.isversionof	http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.6959004.0003.004	en_US
dash.license	LAA
dc.subject	epigenetic inheritance	en_US
dc.subject	inheritance of acquired characters	en_US
dc.subject	Lamarck	en_US
dc.subject	natural selection	en_US
dc.subject	niche construction	en_US
dc.subject	phenotypic plasticity	en_US
dc.subject	Weismann	en_US
dc.subject	proximate/utlitmate	en_US
dc.title	Lamarck Ascending! A Review of Transformations of Lamarckism: From Subtle Fluids to Molecular Biology. Edited by Snait B. Gissis and Eva Jablonka, MIT Press, 2011	en_US
dc.type	Commentary or Review	en_US
dc.description.version	Version of Record	en_US
dc.relation.journal	Philosophy and Theory in Biology	en_US
dash.depositing.author	Haig, David Addison
dc.date.available	2012-07-16T13:44:58Z