Mental Evolution in Man (1888)

by George John Romanes, Robert H. Wozniak (Editor)

The culmination of Romanes's highly influential analysis of the phylogenetic development of mind. Analyzing and rejecting the various arguments adduced against the continuity of descent as applied to human mind and building a positive case based on presumed parallels between ontogenetic and phylogenetic development, Romanes presented the classic 19th century account of the origin of human faculty.

466 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 1998

About the author

Also published under the pseudonym of Physicus.

George John Romanes FRS (20 May 1848 – 23 May 1894) was a Canadian-English evolutionary biologist and physiologist who laid the foundation of what he called comparative psychology, postulating a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanisms between humans and other animals.

He was the youngest of Charles Darwin's academic friends, and his views on evolution are historically important. He invented the term neo-Darwinism, which is still often used today to indicate an updated form of Darwinism. Romanes' early death was a loss to the cause of evolutionary biology in Britain. Within six years Mendel's work was rediscovered, and a whole new agenda opened up for debate.