Earliest theory of evolution/natural selection?

[aware of emptiness]

What would happen if the Darwinian theory of natural selection was discovered before OTL's industrial, or even scientific revolution (1500's)? How early could the evolutionary theory be developped?
And what would be its implications of this (and its worldview) if it was discovered early? It would not seem implausible for, even before we have complex technology of any sort, to simply through observation, note that there exists variation in populations of organisms, some having fitter traits than others which survive and pass them on, and that this process is what generates diversity.
If "evolution" was discovered way before the scientific revolution, would it make a big difference in our worldview? Would it make people's minds more open to scientific method and accelarate medical/scientific advances?
And what if evolution/natural selection theory was developed in another culture (India's philosophical view, for example, in contrast to Judeo-Christian ones would be more open to the idea that the world is billions of years old and that we aren't "specially created")?

 

[Tocomocho]

I think that this can be interesting for the thread:

"Biggest dificulty is to ascertain what beginning had several animals that occur in the Indies and aren't found in the world of here. Because if there they were produced by the Creator, there is not why to resort to Noah's ark, neither even there were why to save all the species of birds and animals if they needed to be created later in the new [world]; neither seems that with the six day creation God left the world finished and perfect, if remained species of animals to be formed, mostly perfect animals, and of no less excellence than the others known.

(...) I say, for example, if the rams of Peru [vicuñas] and the ones who they call pacos [alpacas] and guanacos don't occur in any other region of the world, who bring them to Peru? or how they went [to there]? Therefore didn't remain tracks of them in the whole world; and if they didn't go from other region, how they were formed and produced there? Perhaps God made new formation of animals?

(...) diverse genders went to diverse regions, and in some they felt so good, that they didn't want to leave it, or if they leave they weren't conserved, or at some time they died, like it happens in many things.

It is also of consideration if that animals specifically and essentially differ from others, or if it difference is accidental, which could be caused by diverse accidents, like in the linage of men to be some whites and other blacks, some giants and other dwarfs. Thus, verbi gratia, in the linage of the simians to be some without tail and others with tail, and in the linage of the rams to be some flat and others woolly: some big and strong, and of very long neck, like the ones from Peru; and others little and of few forces, and of short necks, like the ones from Castile."

Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias. Father José de Acosta, 1588. OTL 1588, simply INCREDIBLE.

 

[Keenir]

What would happen if the Darwinian theory of natural selection was discovered before OTL's industrial, or even scientific revolution (1500's)? How early could the evolutionary theory be developped?

It depends on how you define "evolution"...even Aristotle (teacher of Alexander of Macedon) had a theory on the matter.

And what would be its implications of this (and its worldview) if it was discovered early? It would not seem implausible for, even before we have complex technology of any sort, to simply through observation, note that there exists variation in populations of organisms,

Oh, that was noticed...and they were seen as being not as good as the original specimen (of that species) which God had created.

And what if evolution/natural selection theory was developed in another culture (India's philosophical view, for example, in contrast to Judeo-Christian ones would be more open to the idea that the world is billions of years old and that we aren't "specially created")?

that would certainly be interesting.....it might work by dovetailing individual variation with being reincarnated into a better being.

 

[Anaxagoras]

Anaximander of Miletus was the first person we know of to devise a theory of evolution. He was a pre-Socratic philosopher in the 5th Century B.C.

 

[Douglas]

Lucretius of the 1st century BC wrote a long poem about his world view, De Natura, in which a natural philosophy not unlike that of evolution is espoused.

 

[NHBL]

Could be quite early

It is a clear fact, observable to farmers and other animal breeders everywhere, that critters change over generations. After all, that's where their purebred hounds and horses came from--insuring that critters with "favorable" traits breed, and ones with unfavorable ones don't.
So, what's needed is an intellectual leap to extend that selection to nature--slow rabbits don't breed, and fast ones do, for example. So--this could come about quite early--perhaps even the ancient Greeks could observe that related animals are supremely adapted to their enviroment. All that's needed is a class with the leisure and inclination to study science, and the right stroke of brilliance, to get the idea--to get it ACCEPTED is harder.
And an establishment that doesn't ostracise (or even burn at the stake) its brilliant theorists would help.