Postscript

In the preceding chapters, I have examined how the anthropological ideas first emerged in the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, sophists, and stoics. Thereafter, from the third century CE to the seventeenth century, the intellectual thoughts and activities in Europe suffered a serious jolt due to complete sway of Christianity and the Church Fathers in all the intellectual, social, political, and religious affairs in Europe. However, during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment periods, the scientific and intellectual activities were again resurrected. And finally, during the mid-nineteenth century, especially, after Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, in his epoch making book On the Origin of Species (1859), scientific temper again acquired significant momentum. Two important developments took place as a result of Darwin’s watershed publication.