Naturalism and
Humanitarianism
• Naturalism is the doctrine that scientific
procedures and laws are applicable to all
phenomena.
• Evolutionary Theory has roots in ancient
Greece, as well as Eastern Sources. In fact,
evolution is part of the larger question of
cosmogony, the study of the origin of the
cosmos.
• The evolution of the solar system has been a
topic of speculation since the beginning of the
shift away from a geocentric solar system.
• Kant actually advocated an early version of the
nebular hypothesis.
• Evolutionary theory influenced science as a
whole, including biology and psychology.
Difference between the
Nebular Hypothesis and the
Big Bang Theory
• The Nebular Hypothesis is an explanation for
the formation of solar systems.
• The Big Bang Theory explains the origins of
this universe.
• One as-yet unanswered question — what was
the ORIGIN of the extremely compressed
matter that exploded in the Big Bang and
initiated our ever-expanding universe?
Geological Evolution
• One of the first to argue for geological evolution
was George-Louis Leclerc, known as
Comte de Buffon. But, theological authorities
forced him to retract his views.
• Sir Charles Lyell, the founder of modern
geology, published Principles of Geology in
which he advocated uniformitarianism (the
view that changes on earth occur slowly and
gradually) instead of catastrophe theory (the
view that geological changes had been quick
and radical).
Organic Evolution
• The emergence of theories of organic
evolution has been a slow process that
continues in contemporary society.
• Significant impetus for theories of organic
evolution came from difficulties within
Christian creation theory.
• Comte de Buffon suggested that humans
and apes may have common ancestors, and
he studied humans developmentally.
Charles Darwin Comes on
Stage
• Charles Darwin, a theology student with
interests in the natural sciences, was asked to
join the voyage of the Beagle to examine life in
and around South America.
• After his return, Darwin read the work of
Thomas Malthus, who described population
growth relative to available resources.
• Darwin presented evolution by natural
selection in a joint presentation with Alfred
Russel Wallace, but Darwin was the first to
publish the ideas in 1859 in his classicwork,
Origin of Species.
Growth of Organic Evolution
• Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles
Darwin, argued that plant life developed before
animal life and that all animals evolved from
the same organic material. The evolutionary
mechanism he accepted was the inheritance
of acquired characteristics.
• Jean-Baptiste Lamark promoted
progressionism, the idea that there is a
steady linear advance in nature from simple to
more complex forms of life. Lamark also
proposed the inheritance of acquired
characteristics as the mechanism of evolution.
Darwin Becomes Lightening
Rod
• Evolution by natural selection implied the
following:
• 1) Species tend to overpopulate.
• 2) There is variation in all populations.
• 3) There is a struggle for survival, and some
variations will do better than others at
adapting to the environment.
• 4) The survivors (superior adapters) will pass
benefits to the offspring.
Darwin’s Controversial
Beliefs
• Darwin argued, furthermore, that all changes
that become fixed happen in this way, that all
changes occur by imperceptible gradations,
and that all changes arise originally by chance.
• Evolutionary theory was significant for
psychology in a number of ways.
• Evolutionary theory provided the grounds for
the psychological study of interspecies or
comparative psychology.
• Conway Lloyd Morgan advocated his
principle of parsimony, a specific application
of Ockham’s Razor (see Chapter 4), to limit the
anthropomorphism encountered in much of
early comparative psychology.