In his On the Origin of Species, Darwin did not mention much about the evolution of human being. Yet his contemporaries immediately recognized the implication of his evolutionary theory on man and human society. Modern historical researches on Darwin are also mostly on the relationship between his theory and human society, as the contents of the following articles in this issue demonstrate.
The debates between Darwin and Wallace on the validity of sexual selection provides us rather unexpected insights on the ways an evolutionary theory, or an evolutionary imagination, operates in its' originators minds' eyes on society. Darwin was obsessed with the idea of sexual selection in order to show the origin of sexual dimorphism between male and female and the racial differences in human society. Wallace had not accepted Darwin’s sexual selection for 20 years, yet one day began to argue that female selective power for choosing her mate in human society might be the most promising key for more desirable future society. Indeed, such are the power and liability of scientific theory wrought with evolutionary imagination.