ABSTRACT
The forecasting of ideas is of the greatest importance. A scientific idea is often portrayed as a robot-slave, of purely instrumental value, that is scrapped as soon as another, seemingly more effective one is proposed. The social history of ideas, as it is understood here, arises out of an interest in forecasting and differs from other historical studies of ideas. Never was so widespread a social scandal caused by scientific book as when Darwin's Origin of Species appeared in 1859. Neither the idea of natural selection nor the subsequent ideas of genetics has been received in the social field. The powerful surge of moral ideas has swept them aside. The phrase "reigning idea" is aptly a commonplace, for it suggests that an idea can very well "reign" without necessarily "ruling". The idea of foreign aid to underdeveloped nations was launched not so very long ago by President Truman, in the aftermath of American aid to Europe following World War II.
