The social history of evolution in Britain

• Main Author: Gordon, Mark A.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 1974
• Subjects: Social evolution; Great Britain—Civilization; Sociology of Culture
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/6252
• Institution: De La Salle University

It has come to be common for scientists to study the history of scientific thought. But too often even today, we assume our present theories are "truth." Scientific histories usually describe intellectual events as either having enhanced or impeded discoveries consistent with modern theory. However, by applying the same Western worldview closely reflected its own changing social structure. The idea that nature was fixed permanently by God during the creation gave way to the idea of a constantly changing, evolving world - and, at the same time, the fixed class system of European society gave way to an industrialized society characterized by class mobility. This paper will analyze British scientific theories and biohistoric models from the Reformation to Darwin's Origin of Species.