Why evolution?

Question

Why not Progression, or Advancment, or any of a dozen other words which mean the same. It seems like the word has been stolen and set to mean something that the other words in the section dont mean.

Answer 1

Sorry what's wrong with the word evolution, it does the job?

Answer 2

Well,

progression or advancement imply forward progress.

Nothing about Evolution the process is inherently forward or backwards, just different.

Evolvere is the latin root, meaning to expand or grow out of, which is where we get the term.  Clearly it must have meant something different to the Romans; but then again so did most latin derived words.

Answer 3

They don't really mean the same.

Progression or Advancement definitely implies a direction to the development - an overall goal towards which something is striving.  It also then implies that something further along that 'path' is superior to what came before it.

Evolution, as used in biology and cultural studies, does not imply a specific direction, but merely a selection of whatever best fits the situation at the time.  This does not imply that the solution is the best possible solution, or that there is some overall goal of perfection towards which something is evolving - merely that at the time of selection, the adaptation was selected because there was something about that choice that caused it to become more popular at the time.

Answer 4

Why do we use any words?  Language is simply a tool.  Words are irrelevant.

Answer 5

Surely ~ ! 'Progression' means 'development' which is the same as pretty much saying 'evolving' and thus, ''evolution'''!

!!Um!! ~ Stolen!  Are you actually referring to the word 'evolution'? and ~ 'stolen'! In reference to what? Who by?

Your question has me muchly (in parts) 'Confused'.

Sash.