“Helping to Bridge the Gap Between Genetics and Development:ˮ Julian Huxley, Early 20th Century Oxford Biology, and the Epigenetic Origins of Animal Characters

Julian Huxley is remembered as the author of his landmark 1942 Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. Nowadays, however, he is criticized for having reduced biology to the selection of genes. Some have nevertheless suggested that Huxley’s biological views were more expansive—including rather than excluding issues regarding development or environment. In this paper, using hitherto unexamined sources, I show that Huxley’s developmental understanding of animal characters was rooted in his education at Oxford in the early 20th century. From embryologically and physiologically trained Oxford teachers, he learned to see characters as things that could not be predicted from the cell’s physico-chemical properties. Characters arose anew through dynamic interactions between parts. Huxley and his teachers labeled these as “epigenetic” processes that integrated multiple cross-pollinating causes such as heredity and development. After briefly exploring Huxley’s understanding of character development, I show how we can get to grips with Huxley’s biological views by exploring the context of his education at Oxford from 1906 to 1909. I then show how Huxley received and used these ideas, before I illustrate how they played an important role in his academic and socio-political work.