This article traces the development of evolutionary theory from Lamarck’s theory of soluble bodies to Darwin’s theory of natural selection to modern genetics, and how it provides a deeper understanding of the origin and change of life. It explores how the scientific method explains the diversity of life and the impact of evolutionary theory beyond the sciences into the humanities and philosophy.
The variety of perspectives on the origin of life in world religions such as Christianity and Hinduism, as well as in many local mythologies, suggests that curiosity about the origin of life on Earth has been around for a long time. These myths and religious explanations reflect the cultural backgrounds and philosophical ideas of their respective cultures, explaining the origin of life as a result of mysterious and supernatural forces. For example, Christianity explains that God created the world in six days and created all living things, including humans. Hinduism believes that gods such as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are responsible for creating, sustaining, and destroying the universe and life.
Science has also used the scientific method to explore how each species of life acquired its unique characteristics. Many theories have attempted to explain evolution, from Lamarck’s theory of the fungible, which states that traits acquired by living organisms are passed on to their offspring, to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which became the foundation of evolutionary theory, to modern theories of population genetics and evolution at the gene level. In this article, we’ll focus on Darwin’s theory, which is the foundation of evolutionary theory, and shed some light on how it came to be.
The first person to propose a theory about evolution was a French scientist named Lamarck. In contrast to Christian creationism, which holds that living things exist unchanged as they were created, Lamarck is known as the first scientist to systematically argue that living things evolve over time. Lamarck sought to explain how organisms came to be the way they are today through a theory called the theory of utilitarianism. Lamarck sought to understand the evolutionary process of organisms in terms of two frameworks: “use” and “disuse”: organs that are frequently used by an organism are strengthened and passed on to its offspring, while organs that are infrequently used and useless degenerate and are not passed on to its offspring. For example, Lamarck explained why giraffes have long necks as follows. He believed that giraffes develop long necks in order to eat leaves high up in the air, and that this trait is passed on to their offspring, resulting in an evolutionary process that leads to longer necks over generations. Although Lamarck’s theory was later proven wrong when it was discovered that traits acquired during an individual’s lifetime are not inherited, it is significant as the first attempt to scientifically explain why organisms change.
In contrast to Lamarck’s claims, the current theory of evolution is based on the theoretical foundation that differences between individuals at birth cause evolution. This principle was first proposed by a British scientist named Charles Darwin. Therefore, to understand the theory of evolution, it’s essential to understand Darwin. From 1831 to 1836, Charles Darwin traveled on the British warship Beagle to observe and study the flora and fauna of the world. During his voyage, Darwin observed finches living on different islands in the Galapagos Islands, an archipelago in the South Pacific, and he noticed that there were differences in the characteristics of the finches on the different islands based on their environment. Although the finches were the same species, Darwin wondered why the finches on the different islands had different characteristics. In doing so, he discovered the key principles of evolution: variation and natural selection, and came to the conclusion that all living things have evolved to become what they are today.
Just as children born to the same parents have different characteristics that distinguish them from their siblings, all living things are born with traits that are different from their ancestors and siblings. These differences between individuals are called “individual variation.” Darwin also recognized “excessive reproduction. Darwin also introduced the concept of “excess offspring,” which means that organisms usually produce more offspring than their environment can support. This overabundance of offspring and individual variation, Darwin saw, led to competition for survival. Because resources are finite, and there are more individuals than they can carry, there is competition for limited resources. During this competition, organisms with traits that are better suited to a given environment survive and leave offspring. On the other hand, traits that are not suitable for the environment will die out and disappear over generations. In other words, nature selects certain traits. Darwin defined this process as “natural selection”. Darwin argued that as this process occurs over generations, evolution occurs.
Darwin’s theory was able to explain the basic underpinnings of evolution through the framework of individual variation and natural selection. However, Darwin’s theory had clear limitations. Darwin didn’t have a clear explanation for where differences between individuals come from. At the same time, Darwin’s theory did not explain the cause of the tendency for parents to pass on similar traits to their offspring.
Genetics has addressed some of these questions in Darwin’s theory. First, the development of genetics, represented by Mendel’s laws, allowed Darwin to explain the causes of individual variation that he could not. Genetics revealed the principle that differences between individuals are caused by differences in their genes. At the same time, genetics has shed light on the process by which genetic material is transmitted, which explains why some traits are passed on to the next generation of individuals. In this way, genetics was able to clarify what had remained an inductive assumption in Darwin’s theory. In the process, the theoretical foundations of evolutionary theory were solidified.
Over the course of more than a century and a half, from the mid-19th century when it was first proposed to the present day, evolutionary theory has been refined and refined, building on Darwin’s theory. Advances in the scientific method, represented by electron microscopy and genetic analysis, have made it possible to make more specific and definitive claims about evolutionary theory. Currently, evolutionary theory is a combination of theories that offer different perspectives on understanding evolutionary phenomena. Many theories have attempted to explain evolution, from Weismann’s germplasm continuation theory, which states that acquired variation in somatic cells is not inherited, to the geographic and reproductive isolation of Wagner and Romanes, to more recent theories such as Steve Jay Gould’s discontinuous equilibrium theory and Richard Dawkins’ gene-level evolutionary theory.
By examining the history of evolutionary theory from its beginnings to the present day, we can see that evolutionary theory is not the work of any one scholar, but rather a large system of theories that has been built up from Lamarck’s first studies of evolution in the early 19th century, Darwin’s establishment of the paradigm of evolutionary theory, the refinement of its limitations through genetics, and the accumulation of evolutionary theories by many scientists since then. Even now, many scientists are working to fill in the missing pieces of the evolutionary puzzle, including the study of evolution through gene sequences and the study of evolution at the gene pool level. I hope this article has shown that the theory of evolution is not just a hypothesis, but a theory that has been refined and developed by many theories and scholars. I hope this article has helped you understand the bones of the vast theory of evolution.
Even after the theoretical framework of evolution was established, scholars have continued to expand and refine it with new evidence and theories. In modern evolutionary biology, there is an ongoing effort to integrate findings from a variety of disciplines, including genomics, biochemistry, and bioinformatics, to provide a more sophisticated and detailed explanation of evolution. For example, there is a growing body of research on how phenomena such as gene flow, genetic drift, and mutation play a role in evolutionary processes. In parallel, molecular biology research is deepening our understanding of how the basic building blocks of life, such as DNA, RNA, and proteins, interact and evolve.
Ecological research, which explores the relationship between environmental change and biodiversity, is also an important part of evolutionary theory. The study of how organisms adapt to environmental changes and speciate into new species illustrates the dynamic aspect of evolutionary theory. For example, by analyzing the effects of climate change, habitat destruction, and human activities on the evolution of organisms, we can learn how to preserve and protect biodiversity.
Finally, evolutionary theory is not just a scientific theory; it has also had a profound impact on the humanities, philosophy, sociology, and other fields. It provides deep insights into the origins and raison d’être of humans, and sheds new light on the structure of human society, culture, and ethical issues. In this sense, evolutionary theory has broader academic value and implications beyond science.
Understanding evolutionary theory allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the origin and change of life, and of ourselves. It provides important insights for recognizing that humans are part of nature and living in harmony with it. We hope that this article will help readers understand the key concepts and historical development of evolutionary theory, and that it will shed new light on the relationship between humans and nature.
