Darwin and Haeckel. Historians of evolution. Issues in pre-Darwinian theories of organic change

Abstract of the talk:

Haeckel’s personal and at times idiosyncratic view of the history of pre-Darwinian
evolutionary doctrines stressed the importance of the French contribution, Lamarck’s in
particular. Contrary to Darwin, and many historians, Haeckel had a highly positive and
thoroughly documented opinion of Lamarck. Less documented was his appreciation of the
work of Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, whose works he never quoted and for whom he
never provided any bibliographical information. I will argue for a revision of the persistent
historiographic tradition claiming that French natural sciences of the early nineteenth century
had no role (or a negative one) in European debates on species before 1859, and indeed that
there were no debates worth talking about - as Darwin had claimed, and Haeckel had partially
accepted. Finally, the complex dynamics and the chronology of Franco-German relationships
in natural sciences during the first half of the nineteenth century deserve more attention than
hitherto paid, as the case of Étienne-Renaud-Augustin Serres (1786-1868) will show.

About Pietro Corsi:

Pietro Corsi (Trieste, 1948) has obtained his D.Phil. in the history of science at Oxford
University (1980). He has been awarded research and teaching positions at Oxford University,
The King’s College, Cambridge, Harvard University, the University of Geneva, the
University of Cassino, and Paris 1 University, Panthéon – Sorbonne, He is currently Professor
Emeritus of the History of Science, University of Oxford, and Directeur d’Etudes cumulant at
the E.H.E.S.S., Paris.
His research interests include the relationship betwen science, politics and religion in
nineteenth century Europe, the history of evolutionary theories from the XVIII Century to the
present, the relationship between science and the state in contemporary Italy and Europe, with
particular reference to the history of Geological Surveys, and the history of neurosciences.
He has organzed several exhibitions, including “Les siècles d’or de la médecine”, Paris,
Museum d’histoire naturelle, 1989; “La Fabrique de la Pensée” – “The Enchanted Loom”,
1989-1995, Cité de Sciences, Paris; History of Science Museum, Florence, Natural History
Museum, Madrid (itinerant version, 86 towns visited in Europe and the United States); “Drugs
and the brain”, itinerant version, 126 towns in Italy, France, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, the
United States, Canada), and was a commissioner of the exhibitions L’âme au corps, Grand
Palais, Paris, 1994-1995 and L’origine du Monde, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 2021.
Founder of KOS (1982), the first journal devoted to the history of scientific iconography, he
has been the editor of the Italian language edition of The New York Review of Books (1992-
2010). His main publications include catalogues of the above mentioned exhibitions and in
particular The Enchanted Loom. Chapters in the history of neuroscience, Oxford University
Press, 1992, The Age of Lamarck, University of California Press, 1988, French Language
edition, enlarged, CNRS Editions, Paris 2001; Science and Religion: Baden Powell and the
Anglican Debate, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1988 and paperback ed. 2008; with
Roger Chartier, Sciences et Langues en Europe, Paris, EHESS Editions, 1995. He has been
“Editor for science, 1600-2000”, The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford
University Press, 2004, 64 vol. His most recent volume is Fossils and Reputations. A
Scientific Correspondence, Pisa, Pisa University Press, 2008.
Pietro Corsi is the author of several websites designed to bridge the gap between the historical
and epistemological research on the scientific heritage and the world of education and the
general public:
http://www.lamarck.cnrs.fr/ : The complete works of Lamarck
http://www.buffon.cnrs.fr/ - The complete works of Buffon