The Historiography of Contemporary Science and Technology / Ed. T. Soderqvist. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997

Issue 3 from 01.09.2004

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Karl Popper, “Popperian science” and the debates on Lamarckism in biology in the 1960s-I980s

Issue 4 from 01.12.2002

The paper examines Popper’s views on Lamarckism in the context of his philosophy of science and his involvement in the discussions on Lamarckism in biology. It argues that Popper’s interest in the contraposition of Lamarckism and Darwinism derived from his general method involving dichotomic consideration of logical oppositions; induction vs. deduction, instniction vs. selection, etc. Particularly intense since 1960s, Popper’s interest in Lamarckism was stimulated by the emergence of molecular biology and its “central dogma” which postulated the molecular interdiction of Lamarckian inheritance. In 1960s-1970s, several papers questioned the credibility of that postulate. Popper himself was involved in these debates. In his unpublished manuscript “DNA and Lamarckism” (1973) he proposed a hypothetical mechanism of feedback flow of information from soma to germ cells, which could explain the seemingly “Lamarckian” effects. To further illustrate Popper’s place in the debates on Lamarckism, the paper examines the work of an Australian immunologist named E. J. Steele. In 1979, Steele wrote a book which criticized the Neo-Darwinian theory and proposed a hypothetical Lamarckian hereditary mechanism. In its pages, Steele openly acknowledged the influence of Popper’s writings. In his turn, Popper also showed a genuine interest in Steele’s work. His comments on Steele’s work and their correspondence give a good opportunity to examine Popper’s views in 1970s-1980s and his influence on contemporary biologists.

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