Before Darwin’s Origin of Species

The origin of evolutionary thoughts is traced. It is argued that two powerful ideas stood against a possible theory of species transformation, namely, the biblical doctrine of special creation and the fixity of species and Plato’sPlato theoryPlatoTheory of Forms of Forms. Evolution was initially used in the sense of unfolding of the preexisting forms. A complete theory of evolution was first proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who advocated the inheritance of acquired characters through continued use and disuse. The works of other pre-Darwinian scholars are also presented.