ABSTRACT
The history of 'evolution' took an odd turn when it became the central concept of the theory of preformation in embryology, advocated by Charles Bonnet. By the middle of the nineteenth century, Bonnet's theory of preformation was defunct, but the concept of evolution had been revived in quite another guise by that dinosaur of Victorian philosophy, Herbert Spencer. In reality, the process of variation under natural selection that Darwin invoked to account for the diversification of living forms, far from providing confirmation within the field of biology of Spencer's evolutionary 'laws', rested on principles wholly incompatible with the axiom of progressive development inherent in these laws. The complete explanation of evolutionary sequence depends on the insertion of historically specific information regarding the pool of variability and the environmental context of adaptation. In modern times the experiences of two world wars, followed by the terrifying prospect of nuclear conflict, have bred a resurgence of evolutionary prophecy with a similarly auspicious message.
