Did Darwin’s evolution need habits?
The authors argue habits were central to Darwin’s evolutionary theory and to a wider nineteenth-century view that acquired habits could be inherited — not a Lamarck-only idea.
Source
Who's afraid of epigenetics? Habits, instincts, and Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory
What they did
They place ‘habit’ across philosophy and biology, then show Darwin treating habits and instincts as agents of transformation. Inheritance of acquired habitual characters is presented as common in French and British natural science, with Erasmus Darwin as an earlier example. A coda ties epigenetics to nature/nurture and intergenerational responsibility.
What they found
Young Darwin counted instincts among the main agents of evolution. Calling such inheritance merely ‘Lamarckian’ is historically misleading. Darwin himself knew nothing of genes or epigenetics; the paper asks what habit-talk might still do in a Darwinian synthesis.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This is intellectual history plus a contemporary gesture, not an epigenomic experiment. It does not prove modern transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.
Key terms
- Habit / habitus
- A form held through time; in biology, a repeated action that can become instinct-like and, for some, heritable.
- Instinct
- For the young Darwin, a chief agent of evolution and species transformation.
- Inheritance of acquired habits
- A common 18th–19th-century view, not Lamarck’s private property.
- Epigenetics coda
- Modern interest in how parental conditions might mark descendants, with ethical ‘sins of the fathers’ talk.
Flashcards
Research intelligence for this paper
See its role on concept claims, tensions it is part of, placement history, and related discoveries.
Quiz yourself
Habits in this paper are?
Common questions
Is habit-inheritance only Lamarck?
No. The paper says it was a relatively common view in France and Britain.
Did Darwin know epigenetics?
No. He knew neither genetics nor epigenetics.
Why habits matter to them?
They structured Darwin’s evolution and may still matter to biology after the epigenetic revival.
More on Darwin & evolution