I. PROTO-EVOLUTIONISM
Proto-evolutionary ideas occur very early in man's
thinking about the world. They were perhaps suggested
to him by the observation of processes of growth in
plants and animals. Such phenomena seem to have
served as a model for speculations about how the world
began and how it acquired the features it has. Evolu-
tionary cosmogonies, largely mythical in content, ap-
pear in ancient Chinese and Indian cultures. Confucius,
for example, is said to have held the view that “things
were originated from a single, simple source through
gradual unfolding and branching” (Chen, 1929). By
others it was believed that the primary elements of
the universe—water, fire, wood, metal, earth—had
come into being in an evolutionary order under the
influence of natural forces. Furthermore, “the Taoists
elaborated what comes very near to a statement of a
theory of evolution. At least they firmly denied the
fixity of biological species” (Needham, 1956). In early
Indian thought, one of the Buddhist groups affirmed
“that nature... is a unitary entity which evolves into
varying forms, including minds (here regarded as dis-
tinct from underlying souls)” (Smart, 1964). The term
“evolution” (parināma) in this context is said to imply
that nature successively manifests new properties as
a result of a process which began when an initial state
of equilibrium was disturbed. Yet the novelty involved
at each stage is only apparent, for whatever manifests
itself must have been implicit in unitary nature from
the start.
Ideas similar to these were advanced by early Greek
thinkers. Among the pre-Socratic philosophers, evolu-
tionary doctrines predominated and were largely de-
tached from mythical elements. The world-order was
represented as having come into existence by virtue
of the generative power of nature (physis). What took
place was without design (technē), and exemplified the
presence either of chance or of blind, irrational neces-
sity. Nature was assumed by some to be literally alive.
Like an organism it can initiate changes to which it
is itself subject. From this assumption it was only a
short step to an evolutionary conception of plants and
animals.
Both Anaximander and Anaximenes put forward the
view that living things were generated spontaneously
by the action of the sun's warmth on a primordial moist
element. Empedocles and Democritus regarded the
element as moist earth or slime. Such views were
undoubtedly influenced by the observation of flies,
maggots, and worms appearing on decomposed organic
matter (e.g., meat), and by the mistaken idea that this
phenomenon was a spontaneous generation of life. The
pre-Socratics did not limit the application of this idea
to simple organisms, but applied it speculatively in
such a way as to allow fanciful and fantastic discon-
tinuities in the history of living things. Thus Anaxi-
menes believed that plants, animals, and men appeared
on the earth in that order. But each was generated
directly from the primordial element. Democritus
likewise seems to have countenanced the ancient idea
that men originated from the earth. Empedocles pro-
posed that men had been formed by the random com-
ing together of separate limbs and organs which had
been produced spontaneously. Some of the combina-
tions proved to be viable and others perished. Anaxi-
mander thought that men first developed inside a fish-
like creature, from which they emerged to live on dry
land. These and other ideas were mere hints of a theory
of evolution as it was later to be understood.
In Democritus there occur the rudiments of a doc-
trine of social and cultural evolution. The ideas in-
volved were, however, not original with him, for they
were widely current in the fifth century and had largely
replaced earlier poetic and religious ideas of a “golden
age” in the past (Guthrie, 1962). According to the
evolutionary view, the first men lived like solitary
animals, without technical skills or social organization.
Their manner of life was highly precarious, and so the
need to survive forced them to band together into
societies. Here they developed the practical, and even-
tually the fine arts, and achieved a measure of civili-
zation. Human culture was thus the daughter of neces-
sity. Democritus called attention to the importance of
the evolution of language in this process. He was
among the earliest proponents of the view that words
have a conventional origin. They began as sounds
related quite arbitrarily to things or notions by men
who felt the need for a means of communication more
comprehensive and subtle than grunts or animal cries.
The growth of language in turn accelerated the evolu-
tion of culture.
