Capitalism and Evolution

Stephen Jay Gould argued that Darwin choose a "middle road" in his development of the theory of natural selection and evolution. He contended that Darwin neither blindly gathered facts, nor had a perfect "Eureka!" moment, rather he worked for two years on developing a picture. One of the books Darwin credited to helping him develop the idea of Natural Selection was written by Dugald Stewart, who was praising and explaining the ramifications of Adam Smith's idea of Capitalism. I want to quote the quote because I find the prospect fascinating: "The most effective plan for advancing people... is by allowing every man, as long as he observes the rule of justice, to pursue his own interest in his own way, and to bring both his industry and his capital into the freest competition with those of his fellow citizens. Every system of policy which endeavors... to draw towards a particular species of industry a greater share of the capital of the society than would naturally go to it... is, in reality, subversive of the great purpose which it means to promote." In development, Capitalism was a parent of the theory of Natural Selection. Darwin wasn't the first person to come up with the idea of evolution, the word was already commonly understood, he realized the how. Competition. All of nature, humanity, and the universe operates as a system of individual entities in conflict, bringing about a greater stability. It is elements formed, planets formed, solar systems formed, cycles formed from the chaos, the order brought more order, life being order's highest level, order able to reorder. And from life came humans, life's highest level, not only capable of intentionally maintaining order, but able to create new order that had never existed.