Category:Evolutionism

Evolutionism is a theoretical movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries, that applied Darwin’s theory of evolution to social processes (and not just biological ones). Evolutionists believed that social change happened according to regular natural laws. They also believed that social change was “teleological” – that it progressed toward a particular end. This is different from evolution strictly speaking, in which change happens as random variation adapts to environmental conditions with no underlying progressive logic and no end point.