page_title: Lamarckism
section_title: Ideological neo-Lamarckism
hierarchical_section_title: Lamarckism / Neo-Lamarckism / Ideological neo-Lamarckism
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Трофим Денисович Лысенко English: Soviet pseudoscientist Trofim Denisovich Lysenko
context_page_description: Lamarckism, or Lamarckian inheritance, also known as "Neo-Lamarckism", is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. This idea is also called the inheritance of acquired characteristics or soft inheritance. It is inaccurately named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories as a supplement to his concept of orthogenesis, a drive towards complexity. The theory is cited in textbooks to contrast with Darwinism. This paints a false picture of the history of biology, as Lamarck did not originate the idea of soft inheritance, which was known from the classical era onwards, and it was not the primary focus of Lamarck's theory of evolution. Further, in On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin supported the idea of "use and disuse inheritance", though rejecting other aspects of Lamarck's theory. Darwin's own concept of pangenesis implied soft inheritance.
context_section_description: A form of Lamarckism was revived in the Soviet Union of the 1930s when Trofim Lysenko promoted the ideologically-driven research programme, Lysenkoism; this suited the ideological opposition of Joseph Stalin to genetics. Lysenkoism influenced Soviet agricultural policy which in turn was later blamed for crop failures.
caption: Trofim Lysenko promoted an ideological form of neo-Lamarckism which adversely influenced Soviet agricultural policy in the 1930s.
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