The Story of Human and Societal Evolution: The Evolutionary Journey of Our Ancestors

Abstract

In the previous chapter we traced the development of the evolutionary idea through the ages. Over a period of two millennia, starting with the Greek classical movement, we visited with philosophers and scientists who contemplated evolution in general and human and societal evolution in particular. We heard a great variety of ideas, most of them speculations but some providing rare insights. It was not until the nineteenth century that our journey led to a great discovery: evolutionary science. The lifelong work of Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, and Spencer drastically changed the evolutionary idea landscape from one of hazy features to a clearly formed scholarly endeavor. From the work of these pioneers, the domain of evolutionary science exploded into a cross-disciplinary science, the literature of which takes up whole sections in libraries.