ABSTRACT
The word ‘evolution’ may be used generally for a development of any kind or more particularly for that form of biological development which was taught by Charles Darwin in his Origin of Species published in 1859. The notion of development was already a familiar one to philosophers and biologists from the time of Aristotle; indeed, nothing could be more obvious than that in the life of an individual animal or plant there is a development from the embryo or seed to the fully grown animal or plant. Darwin’s theory was an attempt to explain the development of animal species without the notion of purpose and to show how, by purely mechanical causes, later species developed from earlier species. This aspect of creativeness is certainly something that does not seem to have a place in most of the familiar ethical theories.
