Key Points in Early Evolutionary Thinking Plato and Fixity of Species Aristotle and The Great Chain of Being Teleology: Belief in a “Grand Design” Why do these three very early ideas remain intact throughout the bulk of the history of western civilization?

Setting the Stage for the Scientific Revolution Luther’s Reformation (1517) Galileo (1564-1642): experimentation Bacon (1561-1626): inductive modeling Newton (1643-1727): hypotheticodeduction Locke and deism (1690)

Key Paradigms of Discovery and Enlightenment Fixity of Species Great Chain of Being Teleology Scientific Method Natural Theology – Belief that the goal of science is to reveal God’s perfect plan

John Ray (1627-1705) Develops idea of Species Species: Reproductively isolated organisms Genus: Two or more groups of closely related species Belief in Fixity

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) First Taxonomy of 11,000 species Binomial Nomenclature Systema Naturae (1758)

J.B. LaMarck (1744-1829) Built upon Buffon’s (1749) work Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics Published in 1809 Focuses on “felt needs” of organisms Was best idea to date

Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) Competing idea to LaMarck Based on views of fossil beds near Paris Stratigraphy Superposition Catastrophism

Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Scottish geologist Principles of Geology (1830) Introduces/collects some key concepts: Uniformitarianism Gradualism Advanced age of the Earth which conflicts with Ussher’s 16th century date of 4004 B.C.