HIST 2206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Conrad Gessner, Erasmus Darwin, James Hutton
Document Summary
Directional flow of time change and stability exist side by side in a vast array of patterns. Organisms are arranged on a scale of increasing complexity. Each organism occupies a rung on the ladder and each rung is filled. All species were created in present form during the 6 days of creation, no new species since. A hierarchy of species according to a scale of perfection. All species are perfectly adapted to their environment. 17th century: age of earth and species was 6000 years (4004 bc) 18th century botanist effort to bring order to nature . Hierarchial classification fixity of species (later: daughters of time") binomial system of classification. Comte georges buffon (1707-1788) experiments on cooling spheres much older earth than 6000 years not progressive evolution but plants and animals degenerated from more robust ancestors. Geologist james hutton (1726-1796) earth had undergone profound but sloe continuous change for millions pf years theory of gradualism".
