Tradition
Evolutionism
Overview
Evolutionism is a term used (often derogatorily) to denote the theory of evolution. Its exact meaning has changed over time as the study of evolution has progressed. In the 19th century, it was used to describe the belief that organisms deliberately improved themselves through progressive inherited change (orthogenesis). The teleological belief went on to include cultural evolution and social evolution. In the 1970s, the term "Neo-Evolutionism" was used to describe the idea that "human beings sought to preserve a familiar style of life unless change was forced on them by factors that were beyond their control."
The term is most often used by creationists to describe adherence to the scientific consensus on evolution as equivalent to a secular religion. The term is very seldom used within the scientific community, since the scientific position on evolution is accepted by the overwhelming majority of scientists. Because evolutionary biology is the default scientific position, it is assumed that "scientists" or "biologists" are "evolutionists" unless specifically noted otherwise. In the creation–evolution controversy, creationists often call those who accept the validity of the modern evolutionary synthesis "evolutionists" and the theory itself "evolutionism".
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
(2) The predominant interest of evolutionism is in the question of human destiny, or at least of the destiny of Life. It is more interested in morality and happiness than in knowledge for its own sake.
Bertrand Russell, Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy
States what Evolutionism is; opens on Evolutionism.
In its primary stage, every germ consists of a substance that is uniform throughout, both in texture and chemical composition. The first step is the appearance of a difference between two parts of this substance; or, as the phenomenon is called in physiological language, a differentiation. Each of these differentiated divisions presently begins itself to exhibit some contrast of parts; and by and by these secondary…
Herbert Spencer, Illustrations of Universal Progress
States what Evolutionism is; the author is tied to Evolutionism in the knowledge graph.
Evolutionism, in basing itself upon the notion of _progress_, which is change from the worse to the better, allows the notion of time, as it seems to me, to become its tyrant rather than its servant, and thereby loses that impartiality of contemplation which is the source of all that is best in philosophic thought and feeling. Metaphysicians, as we saw, have frequently denied altogether the reality of time.
Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays
Opens on Evolutionism; names Evolutionism.
Philosophers who discussed Evolutionism
- Seyyed Hossein Nasr
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis
- Herbert Spencer
- Wilhelm Wundt
- Swami Vivekananda
- Friedrich Engels
- Frithjof Schuon
- Gustav Teichmüller
- Petre P. Negulescu
Related ideas
- Fascism
- Atheism
- Scientism
- Occult
- Herbert Spencer
- On the Origin of Species
- Pew Research Center
- Scientific community
- TalkOrigins Archive
- Evolutionary biology
- Humanism
- Survival of the fittest
- Teleology
- Evolution
- Rejection of evolution by religious groups
- Secular religion
Place in the tradition
Part of Italian philosophy.