The Science of Weather and the Nature of Science
Before he coined 'biology,' Jean-Baptiste Lamarck pioneered meteorology, classifying clouds and advocating for a participatory, observational science. This excerpt from Jessica Riskin's book details his early weather forecasts and the philosophical clash with deterministic thinkers like Laplace. It's a fascinating historical account of scientific method, political interference by Napoleon, and the surprising 'subversive' nature of early weather prediction.
The Lowdown
This piece, an excerpt from Jessica Riskin's new book on Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, sheds light on the often-overlooked meteorological work of the famed naturalist, portraying him as a visionary who championed a deeply observational and participatory approach to science, in stark contrast to the prevailing deterministic views of his era. It highlights how his scientific endeavors intertwined with broader philosophical debates and even political power dynamics in early 19th-century France.
- Lamarck's journey into meteorology began around 1770, classifying clouds from his garret window, eventually leading to his first cloud atlas presented to the Academy of Sciences in 1777 and published in 1802, the same year he coined 'Biologie'.
- His system used French terms, aiming to create a broad, participatory community of 'friends of nature' who would contribute observations, unlike Luke Howard's internationally adopted Latin-based classification.
- Lamarck's meteorological yearbooks, started in 1799, invited readers to annotate their copies with observations, based on his theory of the moon's cyclical gravitational influence on weather (a concept related to modern 'atmospheric tides').
- He detailed how to observe the atmosphere, distinguishing 'simple' from 'mixed' weather based on wind directions at different altitudes, and even rapturously described early observations of funnel clouds and hurricanes.
- Under Minister Chaptal, Lamarck briefly established the world's first national weather bureau, collecting data from across France until Napoleon's political maneuvering led to its abrupt abolition and the confiscation of records by Laplace's Bureau of Longitudes.
- Lamarck's probabilistic, non-deterministic view of weather, acknowledging multiple complex factors and the Earth's constant change, clashed fundamentally with Laplace's highly deterministic, mechanistic worldview, which saw contingency as mere human ignorance.
- Ultimately, Napoleon himself ordered Lamarck to cease publication of his meteorological observations in 1809, viewing his inclusive, non-deterministic science as implicitly 'subversive' to the centralized, rational authority he sought to impose.
Lamarck's meteorological efforts, though suppressed in his time, reveal a profound commitment to a science that embraced complexity, public participation, and an intimate, emotional connection with the natural world, offering a counter-narrative to the dominant mechanistic philosophies of his age.