Free Bio dotpoint, for a[n un]limited time only!

For Elena x)

You (you as in general blog readers) are free to use this for revision, etc. but if you directly rip it off and copy-paste it for homework/etc. without giving me appropriate credit, you will be a LOSER! =)

[Plus the whole copy+paste=not really learning anything ... yeppp.]

Sources:

1. Biology In Focus HSC Course - Glenda Chidrawi, Marg Robson, Stephanie Hollis

2. Various Wikipedia articles on evolution e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought

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Analyse information from secondary sources on the historical development of the theories of evolution and use available evidence to assess social and political influences on these developments

Ancient beginnings

Theories of evolution had their beginnings in Greek, Roman and Chinese antiquity as well as in medieval Islamic science. The idea that species could change over time was considered; however, these views were not based on observation and provided no testable theory or mechanism to explain how these changes could occur.

Religious influence

Up until the 18^th century, Judeo-Christian ideas about the fixity of species dominated the West. The predominance of religious institutions assured that ideas such as essentialism (that all species had essential, unchangeable characteristics) and creationism were most widely accepted throughout society.

The Enlightenment and change

Views about the evolution of organisms began to change with the Enlightenment in the 18^th century. At this time, naturalists started to focus on the variability of species. Doubt had been cast on the ideas of species being fixed, due to the advent of palaeontology and the concept of extinctionism. Furthermore, as the Enlightenment was a period characterised by the rise of reason as the prime source of legitimacy and authority, religious institutions lost power and the hold of their beliefs, including those of creationism, began to weaken.

Lamarck

The first known scientific theory of evolution was developed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck during the 1800s, when evolution began to be taken seriously. Between 1802 and 1822, Lamarck published his theory that the use and disuse of body parts strengthened and weakened them respectively, and that evolution was due to the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Lamarck had been conducting research at the height of the French Revolution, which was caused in part by the Enlightenment and which firmly advocated its ideals regarding reason. This social and political influence almost certainly impacted upon Lamarck’s work, causing him to look for a logical theory about change in species. Lamarck’s theory has since been disproved, as acquired characteristics are not inherited.

Darwin and Wallace

In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace jointly published the evolutionary theory that both of them had reached, albeit independently. The theory was outlined in detail in Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, published in 1859. Intense debate, controversy and interest followed. Although there had been growing support for ideas favouring change and variability in species, in the first half of the 1800s the English scientific establishment was still closely linked to the Church of England. Dominant beliefs regarded life as a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique and unrelated to other animals. Transmutation was not accepted by the mainstream scientific community.

Acceptance

About twenty years after the publication of On the Origin of Species, there was a general consensus in the scientific community that evolution had occurred, though there was doubt that natural selection was the mechanism responsible. In the 1930s and 40s, due to modern evolutionary synthesis, Darwin’s theory of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became the accepted modern evolutionary theory.

Modern debate

Today, though evolution is a generally accepted idea, there is remains ongoing debate surrounding the issue. It has not been completely accepted: for instance, some schools in the USA teach creationism or intelligent design instead of or alongside evolution. There exist various lobby groups in many parts of the world that attempt to influence the predominance that the Darwin-Wallace theory of evolution currently has.