The word evolution (from the Latin evolutio, meaning "to unroll like a scroll") appeared in English in the 17th century, referring to an orderly sequence of events, particularly one in which the outcome was somehow contained within it from the start.
"[1] While Hale first used the term evolution in arguing against the exact mechanistic view the word would come to symbolize, he also demonstrates that at least some evolutionist theories explored between 1650 and 1800 postulated that the universe, including life on earth, had developed mechanically, entirely without divine guidance.
Around this time, the mechanical philosophy of Descartes, reinforced by the physics of Galileo and Newton, began to encourage the machine-like view of the universe which would come to characterise the scientific revolution.
[5] Between 1603 and 1613 Sir Walter Raleigh was a prisoner in the Tower of London awaiting execution; in this period he wrote a history of the world in five volumes where he described his American experiences and adventures, in it he wondered whether all the new species discovered in the new continent could have found their place on Noah's Ark.
[9][10] Although Darwin's foreword to his 6th edition of Origin credited Aristotle with foreshadowing the concept of natural selection, he also wrote that "the first author who in modern times has treated it in a scientific spirit was Buffon".
[12] Between 1767 and 1792 James Burnett, Lord Monboddo included in his writings not only the concept that man had descended from other primates, but also that, in response to their environment, creatures had found methods of transforming their characteristics over long time intervals.
[16] In 1796, Erasmus Darwin published his Zoönomia, which suggested "that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament ... with the power of acquiring new parts"[17] in response to stimuli, with each round of improvements being inherited by successive generations.