Evolutionary ideas of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment

Evolutionary ideas during the periods of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment developed over a time when natural history became more sophisticated during the 17th and 18th centuries, and as the Scientific Revolution and the rise of mechanical philosophy encouraged viewing the natural world as a machine with workings capable of analysis. But the evolutionary ideas of the early 18th century were of a religious and spiritual nature.

Source: Wikipedia — Evolutionary ideas of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment (CC BY-SA 4.0)