LECTURE XL 

 THE CONCEPT OF EVOLUTION. 



1. A Question of Terms. 2. The Evolution of Organisms Con- 

 trasted with Inorganic Genesis. 3. Organic Evolution Con- 

 trasted with the History of Human Societies. 4. Definition 

 of the Concept of Organic Evolution. 5. May Evolution 

 Have Been a Process of Analytic Simplifying, not of Synthetic 

 Complexifying? 6. The Logical Validity of the Evolution 

 Formula. 7. Difficulties in the Way of Concrete Evolution 

 Theory Lead to Hypotheses of Transcendental Underpinning. 

 8. In What Sense Is Organic Evolution Continuous? 9. 

 In What Sense Is Organic Evolution Progressive? 



THERE are two fundamental biological questions : What are 

 living creatures, statically and dynamically, intact and in all 

 their parts?; and, How have they come to be as they are, 

 individually and racially? In the preceding ten lectures 

 we have been concerned with organisms as they are ; we pass 

 now to the problem of their evolution. Our general aim 

 remains : to state the outstanding results of a scientific 

 study of Animate Nature, so that it may be seen whether 

 they are conformable with other results of human experience. 

 We do not argue from the empirical facts to any transcen- 

 dental conclusion, for that is bound to be bad argument. We 

 try to state the facts. 



1. A Question of Terms. 



It must be confessed that the study of organic evolution 

 has been hampered by a plethora of words and a dearth of 

 facts. This is not unnatural, for the idea of testing evolu- 

 353 



