<P> Several philosophers of the classical era , including Empedocles and his intellectual successor , the Roman poet Lucretius , expressed the idea that nature produces a huge variety of creatures , randomly , and that only those creatures that manage to provide for themselves and reproduce successfully persist . Empedocles ' idea that organisms arose entirely by the incidental workings of causes such as heat and cold was criticised by Aristotle in Book II of Physics . He posited natural teleology in its place , and believed that form was achieved for a purpose , citing the regularity of heredity in species as proof . Nevertheless , he accepted in his biology that new types of animals , monstrosities ( τερας ) , can occur in very rare instances ( Generation of Animals , Book IV ) . As quoted in Darwin 's 1872 edition of The Origin of Species , Aristotle considered whether different forms ( e.g. , of teeth ) might have appeared accidentally , but only the useful forms survived : </P>
<P> Several philosophers of the classical era , including Empedocles and his intellectual successor , the Roman poet Lucretius , expressed the idea that nature produces a huge variety of creatures , randomly , and that only those creatures that manage to provide for themselves and reproduce successfully persist . Empedocles ' idea that organisms arose entirely by the incidental workings of causes such as heat and cold was criticised by Aristotle in Book II of Physics . He posited natural teleology in its place , and believed that form was achieved for a purpose , citing the regularity of heredity in species as proof . Nevertheless , he accepted in his biology that new types of animals , monstrosities ( τερας ) , can occur in very rare instances ( Generation of Animals , Book IV ) . As quoted in Darwin 's 1872 edition of The Origin of Species , Aristotle considered whether different forms ( e.g. , of teeth ) might have appeared accidentally , but only the useful forms survived : </P>
who developed the idea of evolution by natural selection
who developed the idea of evolution by natural selection
Empedocles
Empedocles