Lamarckism
E7124
Lamarckism is an early evolutionary theory proposing that organisms can pass on traits acquired during their lifetime to their offspring, emphasizing use and disuse of organs as drivers of change.
All labels observed (6)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lamarckism canonical | 2 |
| Lamarckian adaptation | 1 |
| Lamarckian taxonomy | 1 |
| Pangenesis hypothesis | 1 |
| law of inheritance of acquired characteristics | 1 |
| law of use and disuse | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T80708 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lamarckism Context triple: [Darwinism, contrastsWith, Lamarckism]
-
A.
Darwinism
Darwinism is the scientific theory of biological evolution by natural selection, explaining how species change over time through heritable variation and differential survival and reproduction.
-
B.
modern evolutionary synthesis
Modern evolutionary synthesis is the 20th-century unification of Darwin’s theory of natural selection with Mendelian genetics, forming the foundational framework of modern evolutionary biology.
-
C.
Darwin’s study
Darwin’s study is the preserved workspace in Charles Darwin’s former home where he conducted much of his groundbreaking research and writing, including work on the theory of evolution.
-
D.
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a 19th-century social theory that applied Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection to human societies, often to justify economic inequality, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism.
-
E.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a 19th-century English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology and our understanding of life on Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lamarckism Target entity description: Lamarckism is an early evolutionary theory proposing that organisms can pass on traits acquired during their lifetime to their offspring, emphasizing use and disuse of organs as drivers of change.
-
A.
Darwinism
Darwinism is the scientific theory of biological evolution by natural selection, explaining how species change over time through heritable variation and differential survival and reproduction.
-
B.
modern evolutionary synthesis
Modern evolutionary synthesis is the 20th-century unification of Darwin’s theory of natural selection with Mendelian genetics, forming the foundational framework of modern evolutionary biology.
-
C.
Darwin’s study
Darwin’s study is the preserved workspace in Charles Darwin’s former home where he conducted much of his groundbreaking research and writing, including work on the theory of evolution.
-
D.
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a 19th-century social theory that applied Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection to human societies, often to justify economic inequality, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism.
-
E.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a 19th-century English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology and our understanding of life on Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (42)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
biological theory
ⓘ
evolutionary theory ⓘ |
| appliesTo | both plants and animals in Lamarck’s writings ⓘ |
| associatedWith | transformist views of species ⓘ |
| assumes |
continuous gradual transformation of species
ⓘ
direct environmental effects on heredity ⓘ goal-directed or progressive evolution ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
Darwinism
ⓘ
surface form:
Darwinian natural selection
|
| coreConcept |
acquired modifications are heritable
ⓘ
disuse of an organ leads to its reduction or loss ⓘ use of an organ strengthens and develops it ⓘ |
| criticizedBy | modern evolutionary synthesis ⓘ |
| criticizedFor | lack of empirical support in Mendelian genetics ⓘ |
| denies | strict fixity of species ⓘ |
| differsFrom | natural selection by emphasizing directed change rather than selection among variants ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
adaptive changes driven by environmental influence
ⓘ
use and disuse of organs ⓘ |
| field |
evolutionary biology
ⓘ
history of science ⓘ |
| hasComponent |
Lamarckism
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
law of inheritance of acquired characteristics
Lamarckism self-linksurface differs ⓘ
surface form:
law of use and disuse
|
| hasKeyProponent | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ⓘ |
| hasLegacy | as a classic example of a superseded scientific theory ⓘ |
| historicallyReevaluatedIn | context of epigenetics ⓘ |
| historicalPeriod | early 19th century ⓘ |
| influenced |
early evolutionary thought
ⓘ
pre-Darwinian theories of species change ⓘ some early social and cultural evolutionary theories ⓘ |
| inspiredDebateIn | 19th-century biology ⓘ |
| isConsidered |
a precursor to modern evolutionary theory
ⓘ
largely discredited in modern genetics ⓘ |
| misinterpretedAs | claiming that effort alone can change heredity ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Jean-Baptiste Lamarck ⓘ |
| oftenContrastedWith |
modern evolutionary synthesis
ⓘ
surface form:
Neo-Darwinism
|
| originatedIn | France ⓘ |
| precedes | Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection ⓘ |
| proposes |
inheritance of acquired characteristics
ⓘ
that traits acquired during an organism’s lifetime can be transmitted to offspring ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
inheritance of acquired characters
ⓘ
soft inheritance ⓘ |
| statusInModernBiology | of mainly historical interest ⓘ |
| teaches | that organismal needs drive evolutionary change ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lamarckism Description of subject: Lamarckism is an early evolutionary theory proposing that organisms can pass on traits acquired during their lifetime to their offspring, emphasizing use and disuse of organs as drivers of change.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Pangenesis hypothesis
this entity surface form:
law of use and disuse
this entity surface form:
law of inheritance of acquired characteristics
this entity surface form:
Lamarckian adaptation
this entity surface form:
Lamarckian taxonomy