Talk:Lucien Quélet

A fact from Lucien Quélet appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 24 April 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that French mycologist and naturalist Lucien Quélet claimed in his book, Mycologic Flora of France, that the human race as a whole was becoming more and more primitive?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2007/April.

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Claim of "reverse evolution"

I have removed this bit from the article:

He similarly claimed a theory that was opposite to Charles Darwin's view on evolution, claiming that we were actually de-evolving as such. ^[1]

There are a couple of problems with this:

The cited reference says nothing about this, or about human evolution at all. (Neither does the French Wikipedia article.)
This particular characterization of "Darwin's views on evolution" seem to be rooted in the evolution-as-progress fallacy (see Objections_to_evolution#Defining_evolution). There's no sense in which humans are "highly evolved" and sparrows are not. So the phrase "reverse evolution" really doesn't make sense.

Now, if Quélet himself believed in the evolution-as-progress idea, as a lot of people of his time did, then that's fine. But we should describe this as his belief and not Darwin's theory.

Can anyone find a summary on the web, in whatever language, summarizing Quélet's views on evolution in general, and human evolution in particular? --Saforrest 17:39, 24 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

But the reference did cite it. If you look carefully, you will see that it did. It says about how his theory was contrary to Charles Darwin. Please look again, and if you do find it, please reinstate it into the article. Thankyou, —ÅñôñÿMôús _{Dîššíd3nt} 23:28, 24 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Replied on your talk page. --Saforrest 00:10, 25 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The cited reference is no longer available, and I can't find a source confirming this. It seems that these claims would actually be related to mycological systematics. The French Wikipedia article says that his book Mycological Flora of France "proposes a new classification of fungi that will be at the basis of the mycological systematics of the 19th century" ("Cet ouvrage majeur [...] propose une nouvelle classification des champignons qui [...] sera à la base de la systématique mycologique du XIXe siècle."). Korg (talk) 16:58, 28 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

^ Cite error: The named reference ora was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[ora-1] Cite error: The named reference ora was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[1]