Chapter 6 - Charles Darwin and the evolving mind Flashcards
uniformitarian theory
the earth’s main features are the result of gradual processes that occured over a long period of time and that these processes are still happening in the present
catastrophism
geological features arose as a result of a few sudden massive cataclysms on earth
William (Bishop) Paley
created the argument of design
argument of design
the highly complicated organs of species are so perfectly constructed that they must have been designed by God
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
proposed that species evolve and change because they adopt learned characteristics from their parents
natural selection
different environments favor certain types of organisms to survive and reproduce, the most adaptive survive and continue the population with stronger genes
Alfred Wallace
reached the same conclusion about evolution as Darwin and made Darwin feel confident to publish his book “The Origin of Species”
polygenesis
different races of human evolved from different forebearers
monogenesis
claimed that all humans share a common ancestor
sexual selection
the evolution and selection of traits specifically favourable to reproduction
complementarity of the sexes hypothesis
men and women have characteristics which complement each other
variation hypothesis
natural selection works more on males than females
- men are more varied in their characteristics
ontogeny
the study of the development of the individual
Ernst Haeckel
claimed that any development of an individual could tell us something about the development of a species (phylogeny)
social darwinism
the most intelligent and productive people will win if they are left to compete with each other, leading to a steady improvement of society
- coined by Herbert Spencer
