In 1871 Charles Darwin publishes The Descent of Man, applying natural and sexual selection to mankind itself, the moral sense included. The book completes the movement his Origin of Species began in 1859 (its own record stands in the secular timeline): conscience, religion, and society are brought inside natural history.
Tagged: Naturalism
The Event
- Date
- 1871 (exact)
- Era
- The Darwinian Century; Standard periodization of naturalist history
- Location
- London; today London, England
- Traditions
- Naturalism
- Streams
- Naturalism
- Key figures
- Charles Darwin
- Key texts
- The Descent of Man
Connections
Primary Sources
- Darwin, Charles. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London, 1871.
Secondary Sources
- De Caro, Mario, and David Macarthur, eds. Naturalism in Question. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
- Gregory, Frederick. Scientific Materialism in Nineteenth Century Germany. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1977.
- Papineau, David. Philosophical Naturalism. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
Provenance: HIST-1407; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
Related on This Site
History Event
Büchner's Force and Matter
1855
History Event
D'Holbach's System of Nature
1770
History Event
Huxley's Man's Place in Nature
1863
History Event
La Mettrie's Man a Machine
1747
History Event
Laplace's Exposition of the System of the World
1796
History Event
Mill's A System of Logic
1843
History Event
Newton's Principia Mathematica
1687
World View
Naturalism
Naturalism holds that nature is all there is: the universe of matter, energy, and natural law needs no god, soul, or purpose beyond itself.