Two new papers of mine 18 Aug 2009 Deflating genetic information – in which I argue that the only sense in which genes have “information” is the causal sense of specificity Darwin on species and heredity – in which I reprise some blog entries on this site about myths of Darwin. Both are under review, and hence neither are final or citeable. Epistemology Genetics History Metaphysics Philosophy Science Species concept Systematics
Ecology and Biodiversity Bugs online 9 Aug 2008 This is cool. I always like to find historical documents online; even better when they’re free. The Society for General Microbiology has scanned its journal International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM) back to the first edition in 1951 and made the archival articles free to all. Since the… Read More
Philosophy On dictionaries, movements and rhetorical flourishes 9 Feb 2011 Lately, PZ Myers has been on a tear. He has rejected what he calls “Dictionary Atheism”. I have to admit, he has a way with words. I love it that he can come up with such things as the Courtier’s Reply, his Complexity Design Argument, and so forth. It’s fun… Read More
Epistemology The undergraduate effect and the gravity wells of knowledge 7 May 201122 Jun 2018 As usual, Randall Munroe nails it (although if I were playing with that metaphor, I’d say that density distorts the sheet). But I like metaphors, because unfortunately I have the mathematical ability and skills of a drunken frog. So I am going to use a metaphor as a metaphor, if… Read More
How many papers are you working on at the same time? Your output is prodigious. What exactly does “under review” mean?
I usually have around four of five projects ongoing (see my “What I’m Working On” page here). However right now is rather unusual because I put a half dozen projects on hold while I finished my books. So I’m clearing the decks with all those “in the drawer” projects. Some of them date back ten years. I must revise my functions paper too. “Under review” means I submitted them to a journal, but have received no response or acceptance. “Forthcoming” means they are accepted but unpublished.
A possible correction: you propose that the term “Lamarckian” for those who think heredity is acquired by an individual organism during the parental generation and then passed on to progeny, was coined by August Weismann (1904): Bowler’s ”Evolution” p. 236 says that “neo-Lamarckism” became popular in the 1890s, and appeared with that meaning in “Darwin and after Darwin” by Romanes, from 1892. http://www.archive.org/stream/darwinandafterd04morggoog/darwinandafterd04morggoog_djvu.txt p. 12 Romanes claims to have coined “Neo-Darwinian” and “Ultra-Darwinian” for Weismann’s ideas, p. 13 he turns “to the so-called ‘Neo-Lamarckian’ school of the United States” and says “members of this school believe that much greater importance ought to be assigned to the inherited effects of use and disuse than was assigned to these agencies by Darwin.” (ocr errors corrected) p. 53 he mentions “the self-styled Neo-Lamarckians” This goes a bit against Bowler’s p. 231 statement that some early advocates of the position didn’t realise that Lamarck had pioneered the idea, and a U.S. account of Lamarck and his writings was not published until 1901. So, neo-Lamarckism with the inherited use and disuse characteristics meaning goes back to the 1890s, it may have been coined by Weismann. Not sure if dropping the “neo” is a big issue.
What we now think of as Lamarckism is what the neo-Lamarckians pushed as the alternative to Darwinian variation: acquired inheritance. This became the central interpretation at about the time Romanes wrote. Weismann wrote a bit before Romanes, and Romanes was responding to him.