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The Great Intellectual Error of the 19th Century 

 

 

         The great intellectual error of the 19th and 20th Centuries was the notion that the human being was a product of evolution, begun in random combinations of elements and slowly evolving over vast time periods into more and more compex forms -- becoming motile after the plant level, then developing the subconscious lower-animal forms, and finally becoming the human form, which continued to evolve.  This error, spawned not by Darwin but by the neo-Darwinists, principally Spencer, resulted in racism and the justification of conquest on the part of nations.  Early Psychology bought into the notion, as did some very influential novelists, such as London and Stevenson.  Even Kipling spoke of "the white man's burden." 

 

 

 

 

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