Peter J Bowler, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Published online: April 2001
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001691
The modern theory of evolution emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, but ideas about the natural origin of species were discussed from the ancient Greeks onwards and were actively debated (although not widely accepted) by the time Darwin began his researches.
Keywords: chain of being; creation; evolution; Lamarckism; spontaneous generation
| Further Reading | |
| book Appel T (1987) The Cuvier–Geoffroy Debate. Oxford: Oxford University Press. | |
| Bowler PJ (1973) Bonnet and Buffon: theories of generation and the problem of species. Journal of the History of Biology 6: 259–281. | |
| Bowler PJ (1974) Evolution in the Enlightenment. History of Science 12: 159–183. | |
| book Bowler PJ (1989) Evolution: the History of an Idea. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. | |
| book Burkhardt RW (1977) The Spirit of System: Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. | |
| book Chambers R (1994) Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, reprint, Secord J (ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. | |
| book Corsi P (1988) The Age of Lamarck. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. | |
| book Desmond A (1989) The Politics of Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. | |
| book Farley J (1977) The Spontaneous Generation Controversy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. | |
| book Gillispie CC (1959) Genesis and Geology (reprinted). New York: Harper. | |
| book Glass B, Temkin O and Straus W (1959) Forerunners of Darwin. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. | |
| book Greene JC (1959) The Death of Adam. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. | |
| Hodge MJS (1972) The universal gestation of nature: Chambers’ Vestiges. Journal of the History of Biology 5: 127–152. | |
| book Hooykaas R (1959) Natural Law and Divine Miracle: the Principle of Uniformity in Geology, Biology and History. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. | |
| book Jordanova L (1984) Lamarck. Oxford: Oxford University Press. | |
| book Lovejoy AO (1960) The Great Chain of Being (reprinted). New York: Harper. | |
| book Mayr E (1982) The Growth of Biological Thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. | |
| book Roger J (1997) Buffon: A Life in Natural History. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. | |
| book Roger J (1997) The Life Sciences in Eighteenth-Century French Thought. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. | |
| book Secord J (1989) "Behind the veil: Robert Chambers and Vestiges". In: Moore JR (ed.) History, Humanity and Evolution, pp. 156–194. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. | |
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