Theodosius Dobzhansky: A Man For All Seasons
نویسنده
چکیده
In 1972, Theodosius Dobzhansky addressed the convention of the National Association of Biology Teachers on the theme “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. The title of that address (published in The American Biology Teacher, Vol. 35, pp. 125-129) might serve as an epigram of Dobzhansky’s worldview and life, although it is limited in scope, for Dobzhansky believed and propounded that the implications of biological evolution reach much beyond biology into philosophy, sociology, and even socio-political issues. The place of biological evolution in human thought was, according to Dobzhansky, best expressed in a passage that he often quoted from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: “(Evolution) is a general postulate to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must hence forward bow and which they must satisfy in order to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light which illuminates all facts, a trajectory which all lines of thought must follow – this is what evolution is”.
منابع مشابه
OBSCURA AND DROSOPHILA PERSIMILIS UNDER NATURAL AND UNDER LABORATORY CONDITIONS By THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY
متن کامل
Ulations of Drosophila Pseudoobscura
Most natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura are mixtures of individuals homozygous and heterozygous for gene arrangements in the third chromosome. The relative frequencies of the gene arrangements in populations show geographical and temporal variations. On Mount San Jacinto and in the Sierra Kevada in California, and in some localities in Texas, the temporal variations are cyclic and ...
متن کاملTheodosius Dobzhansky and the genetic race concept.
The use of 'race' as a proxy for population structure in the genetic mapping of complex traits has provoked controversy about its legitimacy as a category for biomedical research, given its social and political connotations. The controversy has reignited debates among scientists and philosophers of science about whether there is a legitimate biological concept of race. This paper examines the g...
متن کاملTheodosius Dobzhansky's role in the emergence and institutionalization of genetics in Mexico.
THE science of genetics was introduced in Mexico lected Drosophila flies there in 1935, 1936, and 1938. His lasting influence on Mexican genetics started several at the beginning of the twentieth century by the agronomist Edmundo Taboada, who studied in the decades later, mostly mediated by de Garay, who invited Dobzhansky to lecture and facilitated the initiation of United States at Cornell Un...
متن کامل