Biology before Darwin

Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher and systematizer, was the first naturalist. He perceived a hierarchy of all living things, with man at the top. His ideas dominated medieval European thinking in the natural sciences for centuries. Married to Aristotle’s concept of hierarchy was the Christian doctrine of special creation. Naturalists believed that all the kinds/species of living things originally came into existence in their present form as a direct consequence of the creative activity of God. Accordingly, there are no necessary relationships of any species to any others historically, meaning no common ancestors.

Following the Renaisssance and Reformation, natural science in the West began to come into its own. While biology was a relatively late entry in this revolution, there were several 18th-century investigators who did important work:
1. Carolus Linnaeus (dates uncertain), a Swedish taxonomist, who remains hugely influential down to this day for his categorization of living organisms. He maintained belief in special creation.
2. Leclerc de Buffon (1701-1788) was an advocate for change over time, in this case by degeneration (loss of properties). In this he adopted a Platonic view of biology (fall from original ideals).
3. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Charles’ grandfather. He posited historical connections between species and the role of competition in the development of species. He thought that the environment may induce changes in animals and that these changes might possibly be propagated through generations (inheritance of traits).
4. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was the first systematizer of evolution. In 1801 he proposed the descent of species, including man. He saw life as progressing in increasing complexity. He proposed the inheritance of acquired characteristics (for which his ideas were ridiculed) and a universal creative principle or “force” that moved everything in the direction of greater complexity.

But biology did not develop in a vacuum. Geological theory exerted an enormous influence on the thinking of biologists.
1. James Hutton (1726-1797) originated the concept of uniformitarianism in opposition to catastrophism (change through sudden violent upheaval). According to Hutton, changes in the Earth took place slowly and gradually via the same processes that can be observed today--erosion, sedimentary deposition, etc. The idea relies upon a very old Earth. Change is the normal state of affairs rather than a static system interrupted periodically by sudden change.
2. William Smith (1769-1839) was an English surveyor who studied geological strata and correlated them to the fossil record.
3. Charles Lyell (1797-1875) was a geologist and author of Principles of Geology, a two-volume work that Charles Darwin had with him on the Beagle. Lyell supported uniformitarianism and an old Earth.