Lamarckism

Ranjit Bhatnagar · 20 Jan 1997, 20:43 · from whorl-v0002.mbox · original

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From: Ranjit Bhatnagar <ranjit at gradient.cis.upenn.edu>
Subject: (whorl) Lamarckism
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:43:25
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[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

As list administrator, I decree that discussion of
Wolfe's views on lamarckism is acceptable as long as you pay
a Lamarck Tax of 200% in Long Sun content.  In an attempt to
*forestall* extended discussion:

Lamarckism, according to American Heritage Dictionary:
    The theory that adaptive responses to environment cause
structural changes capable of being inherited.
    After Chevalier de [[Lamarck]] (1744-1829), its
formulator.

There's an interesting page about Lamarck at
	http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html

The discussion on this page gives Lamarck's ideas the
benefit of the doubt, and, I think, shares Wolfe's view that
Lamarckism, while wrong on the details, is a useful metaphor
to describe the some of results of Darwinian natural
selection.  But Wolfe would rather make bold pronouncements
("We done Lamarck wrong," or "The gods of the Greeks really
existed") without explanation.

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