Three conceptual implications of the theory of evolution in the history of ideas.

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of the concept of evolution on Western intellectual history over the last two centuries, highlighting three decisive conceptual transformations. Methodologically, it is a historical-philosophical essay based on a review of scientific texts, classical sources, and comparative conceptual analysis. The central objective is to show how evolutionary theory modified three fundamental ideas in Western culture: 1. The de-substantialization of life, by dismantling the Platonic and Aristotelian notion of fixed species, revealing that organisms are products of change; 2. The de-teleologization of nature, by explaining evolution as the result of mutations and natural selection, without a providential end; 3. The rupture of temporal symmetry, by contrasting Newtonian reversibility with irreversible processes—such as entropy and evolution—that introduce historical directionality. The scope of the article is to situate these transformations in the history of ideas, showing that Darwin transformed not only biology, but also the philosophical conception of human beings, physical time, and the universe. The text emphasizes the anti-essentialist, anti-teleological, and dynamic nature of evolution and its incompatibility with visions of fixed creation. It concludes that evolution, together with thermodynamics, reconfigured our image of the world as a historical process rather than a static system.