Evolution Social and OrganicLewis, Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow)
Philosophy
Evolution Social and Organic
Lewis, Arthur M. (Arthur Morrow)
Evolution; Socialism; Sociology
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Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_, boldface
in =equals signs=.
EVOLUTION
SOCIAL AND ORGANIC
BY
ARTHUR M. LEWIS
THIRD EDITION
CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
1908
CONTENTS
Page
I THALES TO LINNAEUS 7
II LINNAEUS TO LAMARCK 24
III DARWIN’S “NATURAL SELECTION” 38
IV WEISMANN’S THEORY OF HEREDITY 60
V DE VRIES’ “MUTATION” 81
VI KROPOTKIN’S “MUTUAL AID” 97
VII A REPLY TO HAECKEL 115
VIII SPENCER’S “SOCIAL ORGANISM” 133
IX SPENCER’S INDIVIDUALISM 149
X CIVILIZATION--WARD AND DIETZGEN 168
PREFACE.
The contents of this volume consist of the first ten lectures of the
thirty-five in the Winter course of 1907–08. They were delivered in
the Garrick Theater, Chicago, on Sunday mornings to crowded houses.
On several occasions half as many people were turned away as managed
to get in. If these lectures meet with as warm a reception when read
as they did when heard, I shall be more than satisfied. For a fuller
discussion of the Greek period, briefly dealt with in the first
lecture, see Edward Clodd’s “Pioneers of Evolution” to which work the
early part of this lecture is greatly indebted.
Every lecture proceeds on the assumption, that a knowledge of
the natural sciences, and especially the great revolutionizing
generalizations which they have revealed, is indispensable to a modern
education.
This position is by no means new. It pervades the classic literature of
Socialism throughout. Liebknecht, speaking of Marx and himself says:
“Soon we were on the field of Natural Science, and Marx ridiculed
the victorious reaction in Europe that fancied it had smothered the
revolution and did not suspect that Natural Science was preparing a
new revolution.”
The only thing I have succeeded in doing which is at all new, is
presenting these so-called heavy subjects in a way that attracts and
retains a large and enthusiastic audience Sunday after Sunday eight
months of the year.
These lectures, nothwithstanding their phenomenal success, have
aroused some opposition, in certain quarters among Socialists. This
opposition arises almost wholly from the fact that the Socialists in
question have yet to learn what their own standard literature contains.
When they make that discovery they will be obliged to do one of two
things, reject the Socialist philosophy or cease opposing its public
presentation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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