History of Biology from the Perspective of the “Eclipse of Darwinism”

This chapter provides a historical overview of the “eclipse” period in evolutionary biology, covering early pre-Darwinian theories and then Charles Darwin’s theory, influenced by T. R. Malthus, C. Lyell, and A. von Humboldt. Other Darwinists such as A. R. Wallace and A. Weismann are also discussed. The chapter examines three strands of anti-Darwinian theory. The first, neo-Lamarckism, is divided into teleological creationism, orthogenetic evolution, and environmentalism. The second, orthogenesis, is examined through the theories of C. von Nägeli, T. Eimer, H. F. Osborn, and L. Berg. The third, Mendelism, includes mutationism and saltationism and discusses the views of H. de Vries, T. H. Morgan, W. Bateson, and J. Lotsy. The chapter concludes by tracing how these theories were superseded by the synthetic theory of evolution. The chapter concludes with an examination of the modern synthesis, highlighting T. Dobzhansky’s work in Genetics and the Origin of Species. The contributions of the naturalists G. G. Simpson, G. Ledyard Stebbins, E. Mayr, and J. Huxley, who adopted Dobzhansky’s ideas, are also discussed.