Life and Habit

Butler argues here that much of inheritance was based on habit, but he also firmly opposes natural selection.

Samuel Butler (Author)

9781108005517, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

324 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.8 cm, 0.41 kg

William Bateson claimed at the Darwin Centenary in 1909 that Samuel Butler (1835–1902) was 'the most brilliant and by far the most interesting of Darwin's opponents, whose works are at length emerging from oblivion.' Best remembered today as the author of the novels Erewhon and The Way of All Flesh, he also wrote on a range of subjects from translations of Homer to studies of evolutionary thought. In his Life and Habit (published in 1878) Butler contended that much of inheritance was based on habit making a feature ingrained, to the extent that it could pass between generations. However, he strongly contests Darwin's views on natural selection, and supports those of Lamarck – who he felt was unjustly overlooked in the scientific rush to acclaim Darwin – and of St George Mivart, whose On the Genesis of Species, published in 1871, was another blast against natural selection by a disenchanted Darwinist.

1. On certain acquired habits
2. Conscious and unconscious knowers – the law and grace
3. Application of foregoing chapters to certain habits acquired after birth which are commonly considered instinctive
4. Application of the foregoing principles to actions and habits acquired before birth
5. Personal identity
6. Personal identity–continued
7. Our subordinate personalities
8. Application of the foregoing chapters–the assimilation of outside matter
9. On the abeyance of memory
10. What we should expect to find if differentiations of structure and instinct are mainly due to memory
11. Instinct as inherited memory
12. Instincts of neuter insects
13. Lamarck and Mr Darwin
14. Mr Mivart and Mr Darwin
15. Concluding remarks.

Subject Areas: Evolution [PSAJ]