Darwin, and after Darwin. An exposition of the Darwinian theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions

Romanes, George John

doi:10.5962/bhl.title.17345

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Vestigial pelvic girdle ( ilium ) and hind limb ( femur ) skeletal elements, and a keratinized claw (spur, B ) in an adult python. FromRomanes ( 1896 ), drawn from nature, onequarter natural size.…”

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confidence: 99%

Descent with modification: the unity underlying homology and homoplasy as seen through an analysis of development and evolution

2003

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Homology is at the foundation of comparative studies in biology at all levels from genes to phenotypes. Homology is similarity because of common descent and ancestry, homoplasy is similarity arrived at via independent evolution. However, given that there is but one tree of life, all organisms, and therefore all features of organisms, share some degree of relationship and similarity one to another. That sharing may be similarity or even identity of structure and the sharing of a most recent common ancestor--as in the homology of the arms of humans and apes--or it may reflect some (often small) degree of similarity, such as that between the wings of insects and the wings of birds, groups whose shared ancestor lies deep within the evolutionary history of the Metazoa. It may reflect sharing of entire developmental pathways, partial sharing, or divergent pathways. This review compares features classified as homologous with the classes of features normally grouped as homoplastic, the latter being convergence, parallelism, reversals, rudiments, vestiges, and atavisms. On the one hand, developmental mechanisms may be conserved, even when a complete structure does not form (rudiments, vestiges), or when a structure appears only in some individuals (atavisms). On the other hand, different developmental mechanisms can produce similar (homologous) features. Joint examination of nearness of relationship and degree of shared development reveals a continuum within an expanded category of homology, extending from homology --> reversals --> rudiments --> vestiges --> atavisms --> parallelism, with convergence as the only class of homoplasy, an idea that turns out to be surprisingly old. This realignment provides a glimmer of a way to bridge phylogenetic and developmental approaches to homology and homoplasy, a bridge that should provide a key pillar for evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). It will not, and in a practical sense cannot, alter how homoplastic features are identified in phylogenetic analyses. But seeing rudiments, reversals, vestiges, atavisms and parallelism as closer to homology than to homoplasy should guide us toward searching for the common elements underlying the formation of the phenotype (what some have called the deep homology of genetic and/or cellular mechanisms), rather than discussing features in terms of shared or independent evolution.

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confidence: 99%

Descent with modification: the unity underlying homology and homoplasy as seen through an analysis of development and evolution

2003

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“…If it has demonstrated the futility of their proof, it has furnished nothing in the way of disproof. It has shown, indeed, that their line of argument was misjudged when they thus sought to separate organic nature from inorganic as a theatre for the special or peculiar display of supernatural design; but further than this it has not shown anything (Romanes, , p. 413).…”

Section: Amateur or Professional?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A few pages later, Romanes even declares that “He [Darwin] has proved, more rigidly than was ever proved before, that suffering is a condition to improvement—struggle for life being the raison d’être of higher life, and this not only in the physical sphere, but also in the mental and moral” (Romanes, , p. 415).…”

Section: Amateur or Professional?mentioning

confidence: 99%

In between mental evolution and unconscious memory: Lamarckism, Darwinism, and professionalism in late Victorian Britain

Turbil

2017

J History Behavioral Science

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In 1884 Samuel Butler published a collection of essays entitled Remarks on George Romanes' Mental Evolution, where he attempted to show how Romanes' idea of mental evolution presented similarities with his theory of unconscious memory. By looking at Romanes' work through Butler's writing, this article will reevaluate some aspects of their works regarding the complex debate about memory, heredity, and instinct. This paper will explore the main differences and similarities between Romanes' science and Butler's writing on science both in terms of their ideas and contents. It will then look into their different professional relationships with Darwin and how this determined the professional and public reception of their theories.

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“…It also means that inconsistencies are identified and that damage done to authoritative meanings by textual variants are acknowledged. In this way theology is brought into line with the "creed of science" (Chadwick, 1975;Corsi, 1988a;Graham, 1881;Romanes, 1892). One contributor was Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford, who for two decades had promoted evolution.…”

Section: Thesismentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting Our History Right: Six Errors about Darwin and His Influence

Caton

2007

Evol Psychol

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The Darwin Exhibition created by the American Museum of Natural History is the centerpiece of the bicentennial of Darwin's birth. It opened in November 2005 and will circulate to a number of museums before terminating at the London Natural History Museum in February 2009. The Exhibition is also a major contributor to online instruction about evolution for schools. The quality of the Exhibition's narrative is accordingly of some significance. This paper argues that the narrative is the legendary history that dominates public opinion. The legend has been thoroughly disassembled by historical research over recent decades. My criticism is organized as six theses. (1) Publication of the Origin was not a sudden ("revolutionary") interruption of Victorian society's confident belief in the traditional theological world-view. (2) The Origin did not "revolutionize" the biological sciences by removing the creationist premise or introducing new principles. (3) The Origin did not revolutionize Victorian public opinion. The public considered Darwin and Spencer to be teaching the same lesson, known today as "Social Darwinism", which, though fashionable, never achieved dominance. (4) Many biologists expressed significant disagreements with Darwin's principles. (5) Darwin made little or no contribution to the renovation of theology. His public statements on Providence were inconsistent and the liberal reform of theology was well advanced by 1850. (6) The so-called "Darwinian revolution" was, at the public opinion level, the fashion of laissez-faire economic beliefs backed by Darwin and Spencer's inclusion of the living world in the economic paradigm.

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Darwin, and after Darwin. An exposition of the Darwinian theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Descent with modification: the unity underlying homology and homoplasy as seen through an analysis of development and evolution

Descent with modification: the unity underlying homology and homoplasy as seen through an analysis of development and evolution

In between mental evolution and unconscious memory: Lamarckism, Darwinism, and professionalism in late Victorian Britain

Getting Our History Right: Six Errors about Darwin and His Influence

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