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'''Georges-Louis Leclerc, The Comte de Buffon''' (1707-1788) was a French pre-Darwinian [[evolutionist]] whose [[philosophy|philosophical]] way of looking at the world paved the way for subsequent revolutionary thinkers such as [[Charles Darwin]].<ref name="BuffonEvolutionist"/> He is known as partisan of [[Spontaneous generation]], a philosophically-based doctrine that was later [[Experimental_science#Partisans_of_Spontaneous_generation_vs._Pasteur|experimentally disproved by Pasteur]] as [[Disturbed_character#Science_vs._Evolutionism|error]].{{#tag:ref|cf.[[Singularity#Biological_singularity|Biological singularity]]|group=note}} Buffon became one of the icons for Liberally biased educational institutions such as [[University_of_California,_Berkeley#Liberal_bias|UC Berkeley]].<ref name="BuffonBerkeley">{{cite web |title=Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) |url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/buffon2.html |quote= 100 years before Darwin, Buffon, in his Historie Naturelle, a 44 volume encyclopedia describing everything known about the natural world, wrestled with the similarities of humans and apes and even talked about common ancestry of Man and apes. Although Buffon believed in organic change, he did not provide a coherent mechanism for such changes. He thought that the environment acted directly on organisms through what he called "organic particles". Buffon also published Les Epoques de la Nature (1788) where he openly suggested that the planet was much older than the 6,000 years proclaimed by the church, and discussed concepts very similar to Charles Lyell's "uniformitarianism" which were formulated 40 years later. |accessdate=November 9, 2014}}</ref>

'''Georges-Louis Leclerc, The Comte de Buffon''' (1707-1788) was a French pre-Darwinian [[evolutionist]] whose [[philosophy|philosophical]] way of looking at the world paved the way for subsequent revolutionary thinkers such as [[Charles Darwin]].<ref name="BuffonEvolutionist"/> He is known as partisan of [[Spontaneous generation]], a philosophically-based doctrine that was later [[Experimental science#Partisans of Spontaneous generation vs. Pasteur|experimentally disproved by Pasteur]] as [[Disturbed character#Science vs. Evolutionism|error]].{{#tag:ref|cf.[[Singularity#Biological singularity|Biological singularity]]|group=note}} Buffon became one of the icons for Liberally biased educational institutions such as [[University of California, Berkeley#Liberal bias|UC Berkeley]].<ref name="BuffonBerkeley">{{cite web |title=Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) |url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/buffon2.html |quote= 100 years before Darwin, Buffon, in his Historie Naturelle, a 44 volume encyclopedia describing everything known about the natural world, wrestled with the similarities of humans and apes and even talked about common ancestry of Man and apes. Although Buffon believed in organic change, he did not provide a coherent mechanism for such changes. He thought that the environment acted directly on organisms through what he called "organic particles". Buffon also published Les Epoques de la Nature (1788) where he openly suggested that the planet was much older than the 6,000 years proclaimed by the church, and discussed concepts very similar to Charles Lyell's "uniformitarianism" which were formulated 40 years later. |accessdate=November 9, 2014}}</ref>

== Life ==

== Life ==

|location=New York

|location=New York

|year=2006

|year=2006

|pages=13-18, 39

|pages=13–18, 39

|isbn=0-8129-6849-2

|isbn=0-8129-6849-2

|url=     

|url=     

}}</ref>

}}</ref>

==Forerunner of Evolutionary Thought==

==Forerunner of Evolutionary Thought==

De Buffon together with [[Lamarck]] presented the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain of Being to the scientific world in a new guise, whereupon it came to influence Darwin who took this speculative concept{{#tag:ref|cf. Microevolution and Macroevolution in [[Fallacy_of_extrapolation|Fallacy of extrapolation]]|group=note}} as the starting point for his [[Darwinian evolution|evolutionary views]].<ref name="BuffonEvolutionist">{{cite web

De Buffon together with [[Lamarck]] presented the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain of Being to the scientific world in a new guise, whereupon it came to influence Darwin who took this speculative concept{{#tag:ref|cf. Microevolution and Macroevolution in [[Fallacy of extrapolation]]|group=note}} as the starting point for his [[Darwinian evolution|evolutionary views]].<ref name="BuffonEvolutionist">{{cite web

|title=Comte de Buffon

|title=Comte de Buffon

|url=http://evolutiontale1.blogspot.sk/2013/11/comte-de-buffon.html

|url=http://evolutiontale1.blogspot.sk/2013/11/comte-de-buffon.html

|quote=The Comte de Buffon was a French evolutionist and one of the best-known scientists of the 18th century. He served as director of the Royal Zoological gardens in Paris for more than 50 years. To a large extent Darwin based his theory on the works of de Buffon. One can see most of the teachings that Darwin employed in de Buffon’s wide-ranging 44-volume study Histoire Naturelle.

|quote=The Comte de Buffon was a French evolutionist and one of the best-known scientists of the 18th century. He served as director of the Royal Zoological gardens in Paris for more than 50 years. To a large extent Darwin based his theory on the works of de Buffon. One can see most of the teachings that Darwin employed in de Buffon’s wide-ranging 44-volume study Histoire Naturelle. In his Histoire Naturelle, Buffon reveals himself as an exponent of the doctrine of the Great Chain of Being, with man being placed at the top of the Chain. ... Moreover, new creatures were constantly appearing at the bottom of the Chain, arising from inorganic matter through spontaneous generation...From that point of view, the concept we refer to as the theory of evolution was actually born with the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain. There were many evolutionists before Darwin, and the most of their original ideas and so-called proofs were already to be found in the Great Chain of Being. With de Buffon and Lamarck the Great Chain of Being was presented to the scientific world in a new guise, whereupon it came to influence Darwin.

In his Histoire Naturelle, Buffon reveals himself as an exponent of the doctrine of the Great Chain of Being, with man being placed at the top of the Chain. ... Moreover, new creatures were constantly appearing at the bottom of the Chain, arising from inorganic matter through spontaneous generation...From that point of view, the concept we refer to as the theory of evolution was actually born with the ancient Greek myth of the Great Chain. There were many evolutionists before Darwin, and the most of their original ideas and so-called proofs were already to be found in the Great Chain of Being. With de Buffon and Lamarck the Great Chain of Being was presented to the scientific world in a new guise, whereupon it came to influence Darwin.

|accessdate=December 17, 2013}}</ref>

|accessdate=December 17, 2013}}</ref>

<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book

<ref name="DeniableDarwin">{{cite book

==References==

==References==

<references/>

<references/>

{{DEFAULTSORT: Buffon, comte de (Georges-Louis Leclerc)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buffon, comte de (Georges-Louis Leclerc)}}

[[Category:Biology]]

[[Category:Biology]]