Gregor Mendel and the History of Heredity

Gregor Mendel’s paper “Experiments on Plant Hybrids” (1866) has become a paradigmatic case in the historiography of life sciences because production and reception “discovery” sharply fell apart, thus raising fundamental questions about relationship between scientific achievement “its” time. In this chapter, I am providing an overview answers that have been given to these by various historians. first section, cover commentators who claimed Mendel was “ahead” his time, contemporaries failed recognize achievement. then move scholars scientists argued against position, claiming not anticipating twentieth-century genetics, but fact representative older research tradition. last step, turn more recent cultural history heredity according which embedded local culture combined variety advanced traditional strands nineteenth-century life-sciences. Overall, arguing one should overestimate coherence dominance presumed “paradigms,” “epistemes” or “styles” biology.