Allen G E
Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
C R Acad Sci III. 2000 Dec;323(12):1081-8. doi: 10.1016/s0764-4469(00)01254-3.
Scholars have differed on the question of why Mendel's work was neglected between 1865 and 1900, and the (by contrast) relatively rapid acceptance of Mendelism in many countries after 1900. This paper focuses on two factors that have not been well explored in the debate. The first is that Mendelism fit perfectly into the atomistic philosophy associated with mechanistic materialism in western science, and thus was strongly promoted by a younger group of biologists around 1900 to raise the prestige of biology to the rigorous level of the physical sciences. The second factor was that Mendelian theory, with its experimental and predictive qualities, fit well into the new demands for industrialization of agriculture both to feed a growing urban population and to provide an arena for capital expansion. This paper proposes that the early promotion of Mendelian research, by both private and public funds, owed as much to economic and social as to biological causes.
学者们对于为什么孟德尔的研究成果在1865年至1900年间被忽视，以及（相比之下）1900年后孟德尔主义在许多国家相对迅速地被接受这一问题存在分歧。本文聚焦于在这场争论中尚未得到充分探讨的两个因素。第一个因素是，孟德尔主义与西方科学中与机械唯物主义相关的原子论哲学完美契合，因此在1900年左右受到一群年轻生物学家的大力推动，他们试图将生物学的威望提升到物理科学那样严谨的水平。第二个因素是，孟德尔理论因其实验性和预测性，很好地适应了农业工业化的新需求，既能养活不断增长的城市人口，又能为资本扩张提供一个领域。本文提出，无论是私人还是公共资金对孟德尔研究的早期推动，经济和社会因素与生物学因素的作用不相上下。
