ABSTRACT
THE concept of evolution which, since Tylor and Spencer, has dominated sociological inquiry, has recently been subjected to fierce criticism and there is a growing group of anthropologists and sociologists who reject it as inapplicable to the phenomena of social life. I propose here to examine into the grounds of these attacks and to inquire whether evolutionary notions have really, as is alleged, outlived their ultility in sociology. The opposition comes from different sources and is supported by arguments of very unequal value. In the first part of this paper I will deal with these seriatim, and in the second and, I hope, more constructive, part I propose to attempt a reinterpretation of the idea of evolution as used in sociology.
