---
title: "History of evolutionary thought"
chunk: 14/14
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_evolutionary_thought"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:59:38.552937+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The Gaia hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock holds that the living and nonliving parts of Earth can be viewed as a complex interacting system with similarities to a single organism. The Gaia hypothesis has also been viewed by Lynn Margulis and others as an extension of endosymbiosis and exosymbiosis. This modified hypothesis postulates that all living things have a regulatory effect on the Earth's environment that promotes life overall.

=== Self-organization ===

The mathematical biologist Stuart Kauffman suggested that self-organization may play roles alongside natural selection in three areas of evolutionary biology: population dynamics, molecular evolution, and morphogenesis. However, Kauffman does not take into account the essential role of energy in driving biochemical reactions in cells, as proposed by Christian de Duve and modelled mathematically by Richard Bagley and Walter Fontana. Their systems are self-catalyzing but not simply self-organizing as they are thermodynamically open systems relying on a continuous input of energy.

== See also ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

== Bibliography ==

== Further reading ==
Zimmer, Carl (2001). Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea (1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019906-7. LCCN 2001024077. OCLC 46359440.
Levinson, Gene (2020). Rethinking evolution: the revolution that's hiding in plain sight. World Scientific. ISBN 9781786347268. Archived from the original on 2022-05-21. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
Shute, D. Kerfoot (1899). A first book in organic evolution. Chicago: The Open Court Publishing Company

== External links ==
"The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online". National University of Singapore. Retrieved May 30, 2011.
The Alfred Russel Wallace Page
Darwin's precursors and influences by John Wilkins. Part of the Talk.Origins Archive.
History of evolutionary thought at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology Project
Fieser, James; Dowden, Bradley (eds.). "History of evolutionary thought". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 2161-0002. OCLC 37741658.
History of evolutionary thought at PhilPapers
"The History of Evolutionary Thought" at the University of California, Berkeley
Charles Darwin and Early Evolutionists writings on evolution before Charles Darwin, collected by Friedman Lab, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University