Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Origins and the Greeks
- 2 Evolution before Darwin
- 3 Charles Darwin’s Geology
- 4 Looking Back with “Great Satisfaction” on Charles Darwin’s Vertebrate Paleontology
- 5 The Origins of the Origin
- 6 Darwin and Taxonomy
- 7 Darwin and the Barnacles
- 8 The Analogy between Artificial and Natural Selection
- 9 The Origin of Species
- 10 Sexual Selection
- 11 Darwin and Species
- 12 Darwin and Heredity
- 13 Darwin and Time
- 14 Darwin’s Evolutionary Botany
- 15 Mimicry and Camouflage
- 16 Chance and Design
- 17 Darwin and Teleology
- 18 The Evolution of the Origin (1859–1872)
- 19 Alfred Russel Wallace
- 20 Darwin and Humans
- 21 Darwin and Language
- 22 Darwin and Ethics
- 23 Social Darwinism
- 24 Darwin and the Levels of Selection
- 25 Darwin and Religion
- 26 Darwinism in Britain
- 27 Darwinism in the United States, 1859–1930
- 28 The German Reception of Darwin’s Theory, 1860–1945
- 29 Darwin and Darwinism in France before 1900
- 30 Encountering Darwin and Creating Darwinism in China
- 31 Darwinism in Latin America
- 32 Botany
- 33 Population Genetics
- 34 Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies
- 35 Ecological Genetics
- 36 Darwin and Darwinism in France after 1900
- 37 Botany and the Evolutionary Synthesis, 1920–1950
- 38 The Emergence of Life on Earth and the Darwinian Revolution
- 39 The Evolution of the Testing of Evolution
- 40 Mimicry and Camouflage
- 41 The Tree of Life
- 42 Sociobiology
- 43 Evolutionary Paleontology
- 44 Darwin and Geography
- 45 Darwin and the Finches
- 46 Developmental Evolution
- 47 Darwin’s Evolutionary Ecology
- 48 Darwin and the Environment
- 49 Molecular Biology
- 50 Challenging Darwinism
- 51 Human Evolution after Darwin
- 52 Language Evolution since Darwin
- 53 Cultural Evolution
- 54 Literature
- 55 Darwin and Gender
- 56 Evolutionary Epistemology
- 57 Ethics after Darwin
- 58 Darwin and Protestantism
- 59 Creationism
- 60 Darwin and Catholicism
- 61 Judaism, Jews, and Evolution
- 62 Religion
- 63 From Evolution and Medicine to Evolutionary Medicine
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Darwin and Heredity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Origins and the Greeks
- 2 Evolution before Darwin
- 3 Charles Darwin’s Geology
- 4 Looking Back with “Great Satisfaction” on Charles Darwin’s Vertebrate Paleontology
- 5 The Origins of the Origin
- 6 Darwin and Taxonomy
- 7 Darwin and the Barnacles
- 8 The Analogy between Artificial and Natural Selection
- 9 The Origin of Species
- 10 Sexual Selection
- 11 Darwin and Species
- 12 Darwin and Heredity
- 13 Darwin and Time
- 14 Darwin’s Evolutionary Botany
- 15 Mimicry and Camouflage
- 16 Chance and Design
- 17 Darwin and Teleology
- 18 The Evolution of the Origin (1859–1872)
- 19 Alfred Russel Wallace
- 20 Darwin and Humans
- 21 Darwin and Language
- 22 Darwin and Ethics
- 23 Social Darwinism
- 24 Darwin and the Levels of Selection
- 25 Darwin and Religion
- 26 Darwinism in Britain
- 27 Darwinism in the United States, 1859–1930
- 28 The German Reception of Darwin’s Theory, 1860–1945
- 29 Darwin and Darwinism in France before 1900
- 30 Encountering Darwin and Creating Darwinism in China
- 31 Darwinism in Latin America
- 32 Botany
- 33 Population Genetics
- 34 Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies
- 35 Ecological Genetics
- 36 Darwin and Darwinism in France after 1900
- 37 Botany and the Evolutionary Synthesis, 1920–1950
- 38 The Emergence of Life on Earth and the Darwinian Revolution
- 39 The Evolution of the Testing of Evolution
- 40 Mimicry and Camouflage
- 41 The Tree of Life
- 42 Sociobiology
- 43 Evolutionary Paleontology
- 44 Darwin and Geography
- 45 Darwin and the Finches
- 46 Developmental Evolution
- 47 Darwin’s Evolutionary Ecology
- 48 Darwin and the Environment
- 49 Molecular Biology
- 50 Challenging Darwinism
- 51 Human Evolution after Darwin
- 52 Language Evolution since Darwin
- 53 Cultural Evolution
- 54 Literature
- 55 Darwin and Gender
- 56 Evolutionary Epistemology
- 57 Ethics after Darwin
- 58 Darwin and Protestantism
- 59 Creationism
- 60 Darwin and Catholicism
- 61 Judaism, Jews, and Evolution
- 62 Religion
- 63 From Evolution and Medicine to Evolutionary Medicine
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Charles Darwin’s position on the subject of heredity is not the easiest of tasks to establish. Not only was he working on the subject in the shadow of Lamarck’s well-known version of the inheritance of acquired characters, but his own views were crucially shaped by what to him were the more important elements in the mechanism he was formulating for the transmutation of species. He never wrote a book specifically on heredity. In his Origin of Species there is not even a chapter so entitled. How unlike his cousin Francis Galton, who was to write several books on the subject, and the philosopher Herbert Spencer, who introduced to British biologists the term “heredity” in chapter 8 of his Principles of Biology (1864, vol. 1). Compare this with Darwin’s treatment of variation. This topic is the subject of three chapters of the Origin – the first, second, and fifth. Six years later Darwin published his magnum opus, the two-volume Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. Here variation is the theme, but this time three chapters are included on heredity: chapter 12 on inheritance, 13 on reversion, and 14 on fixedness of character. Related topics are in chapter 17 on effects of crossing and 19 on hybridism. Of the remaining twenty-five chapters, one is given to his hypothesis of pangenesis, this being Darwin’s attempt at a hypothesis that brings together heredity, variation, and other aspects of the broad field of “generation.”
As for manuscripts, we find in his Transmutation Notebooks beginning in 1837 frequent notes of sources on inheritance, and his discussion of these sources can be found in the chapters on variation in the Origin. The nature of heredity was evidently of considerable concern to him from the early notebooks right on to pangenesis in 1868. How, then, are we to understand Darwin’s study and theorizing on heredity in relation to his work as an evolutionist? Was it a “subfield” that he explored “more with an eye to formulating evolutionary explanations than to solving the internal problems of the field” (Glick and Kohn 1996, 47)? If so, we may be able to identify ways in which he exploited and interpreted selected data in his efforts to find a viable hypothesis for the transmutation of species. For if species are to evolve, variations not only must occur but must be heritable, and the strength of that heritability must be lasting.
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- The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought , pp. 116 - 123Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
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