 | 1897 - 428 pages
...inadequate warrant for the notion that the lowest savagery has never been any higher than it is now. It is possible, and, I believe, probable, that retrogression has been as frequent as progression. ' ' l If, therefore, arrested growth and degeneration be established biological facts, and if philology,... | |
 | John Cunningham Wood - 1993 - 512 pages
...erroneous conception of it. In all cases it is determined by the co-operation of inner and outer factors It is possible, and I believe probable, that retrogression has been as frequent as progression. [Spencer 1885, ยง50, italics mine] But evolution does have a direction. How else could Spencer speak... | |
 | John Offer - 2000 - 696 pages
...human societies. In fact, Spencer ( l 890:93) goes so far as to state that, in the case of societies, "It is possible, and, I believe, probable, that retrogression has been as frequent as progression." The Limits of Evolution Of course, taken over its entire sweep, social evolution has surely predominated... | |
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While the current degradation theory is untenable, the theory of progression, in its ordinary form, seems to me untenable also. ... It is possible, and, I believe, probable, that retrogression has been as frequent as progression [ibid. 