Relazione presentata al Colloquio internazionale Développement, institutionnalisation et méthodes des sciences naturelles, 1780-1840 tenuto a Firenze nel 1981
Abstract:
This paper contains a general evaluation of Lamarck's work as a pioneering interdisciplinary enterprise, which developed from the intersection of many domains and activities: natural philosophy, speculation of the nature and the laws of living beings, technical descriptions and classification of museum specimens, teaching duties at the newly reformed Muséum, ideological and patriotic pretensions towards the unity of knowledge on a scientific basis. Lamarck was a man deeply involved in his many commitments. The structure of the Muséum favoured cross-fertilization among different disciplines and ideas. After discussing the material and institutional constraints which influenced Lamarck's work, its most significant aspects are reviewed: the search after the natural system of classification, the switch from botany to zoology, the idea of series, the problem of biological diversity, transformism, the concept of organization (with its political, administrative and pedagogical, as well as biological, connotations), the system of knowledge, the naturalistic approach to philosophical and moral issues, Lamarck's relationships with his colleagues, especially Cuvier
Nuncius A. 9, fasc. 2 (1994), p. 559-592