Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)
نویسندگان
چکیده
Georges Cuvier [4], baptized Georges Jean-Léopold Nicolas-Frédéric Cuvier, was a professor of anatomy at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France, through the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Scholars recognize Cuvier as a founder of modern comparative anatomy, and as an important contributor to vertebrate paleontology and geology. Cuvier studied the form and function of animal anatomy, writing four volumes on quadruped fossils and co-writing eleven volumes on the natural history [5] of fish [6] with Achille Valenciennes. Moreover, Cuvier constructed a system of classification based on specific and well-articulated principles to help anatomists classify animal taxa. Cuvier had public debate in 1830 with Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, a dispute centered on whether form or function matters most for the study of anatomy and whether the transmutation of organic forms can occur over time. Cuvier's opinions influenced the development of biology in France, and his arguments against transmutation of types influenced the reception of Charles Darwin [7]'s theory of evolution [8] by natural selection [9] among many French naturalists.
منابع مشابه
Chapter One Climate to Crania: science and the racialization of human difference
In letters written to a friend in 1790 and 1791, the young, German-trained French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) took vigorous humanist exception to recent 'stupid' German claims about the supposedly innate deficiencies of 'the negro'.1 It was 'ridiculous', he expostulated, to explain the 'intellectual faculties' in terms of differences in the anatomy of the brain and the nerv...
متن کاملStudying Function and Behavior in the Fossil Record
Inferring the behavior and function of ancient organisms is hard. Some paleontologists would say that it cannot be done because such hypotheses can never be testable, whereas others would say that this is surely a prime task for paleontology—to seek to bring ancient organisms back to life. These issues have long troubled paleontologists. The founder of comparative anatomy, Georges Cuvier (1769–...
متن کاملEssay: The Cuvier-Geoffroy Debate
1. The Debate: Conceptual Themes 2. Function vs. Form: Rational Principles, Taxonomy, & Comparative Anatomy 3. Functional Anatomy vs. Philosophical Anatomy: Scientific Explanation in Comparative Anatomy 4. Observation vs. Hypothesis: The Role of Induction in 19th Century Science 5. Limited Variation (within embranchements [3]) vs. Teratological Evolution 6. After the Debate: Reinterpretations i...
متن کامل