Seminari impartit per Stéphane Tirard (François Viète Center for Epistemology and History of Science and Technology, Nantes.)

Lamarck and the beginning of life

In 1802, the French naturalist, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, abandoned his fixist conceptions and presented the first version of his theory about the transformation of living beings in his book untitled Recherches sur l’organisation des corps vivants.

Firstly, after reminders about Lamarck’s biography, I will present his theory and focus on the issue of spontaneous generations. Secondly, we will analyze epistemological consequences of spontaneous generations in this theory, particularly the connection with the issue of origin of life. Thirdly, to conclude, I would like to claim that Lamarck’s use of spontaneous generations is as a sort of model of his entire theory.

Biographical Note

Stephane Tirard is professor of History of Science and Epistemology at the History of Nantes. He made research on epistemology and history of theory of evolution and botany. He is editor in chief of the “Revue d’histoire des sciences” (Journal of history of science) and editor for history and philosophy of “Encyclopedia of Astrobiology”. He is the head of the program DataSanté.

Personal webpage: https://www.univ-nantes.fr/site-de-l-universite-de-nantes/stephane-tirard-4517.kjsp

DataSanté Page: https://www.data-sante.fr/