Lovejoy, A. O. The Argument for Organic Evolution Before the "Origin of Species" (1909)

Lovejoy, A. O. The Argument for Organic Evolution Before the "Origin of Species" (I) / A. O. Lovejoy // Popular Science Monthly. — 1909. — Vol. 75. — P. 499–514.

Abstract:
Arthur O. Lovejoy investigates the intellectual landscape of pre-Darwinian biology, challenging the common historical assumption that organic evolution was an entirely novel concept prior to 1859. The author meticulously documents how numerous naturalists and philosophers in the 18th and early 19th centuries had already formulated and debated various arguments for the transmutation of species. By analyzing these overlooked contributions, Lovejoy demonstrates that the "Darwinian revolution" was preceded by a significant period of scientific conceptualization, thereby providing a more nuanced understanding of the continuity of evolutionary thought.

Keywords: 

history of biology, evolutionary theory, pre-Darwinian thought, transmutation of species, history of ideas, Arthur O. Lovejoy, organic evolution.