The actuality of Lamarck: towards the bicentenary of his Philosophic Zoologique

Abstract

Lamarck, a son of the age of natural philosophy and revolutionary ideas, turned to zoology, the field in which he made his major impact, in his old age. By then, the world had already shifted towards a different intellectual atmosphere and, due to this anachronism, he was snubbed and even ridiculed by the mainstream neo‐Darwinists. Yet his basic ideas about the active role of organisms in and the progressive unraveling of evolution stubbornly survived along the academic fringes and, more importantly, among the humanistic writers. Recent developments in genetic inheritance, embryology, immunology and behavioral studies vindicate, at least in part, the 200‐year‐old vision of Lamarck.