The first paragraph focuses on his background and how he came to be the evolutionist that he was.

第一段主要他的背景以及他如何成一个进化论者。

So, Williams basically defends Vernant and Vidal-Naquet's idea of tragic consciousness, but removes from it any evolutionist or progressivist thesis.

因此，威廉姆斯基本上捍卫弗南特和维达尔-纳奎特的悲剧意识观念，但从中任何进化论或进步论的论点。

BRIAN HARE: But thinking about evolution  like a Darwinian evolutionist does, that was not popular in Stalin's Russia.

布莱恩·黑尔：但像达尔文进化论者那样思考进化论，在斯大林时代的俄罗斯并不流行。

But such a view, though it might satisfy Spencer and those whom we may call Hegelian evolutionists, could not be accepted as adequate by the more whole-hearted votaries of change.

但这样的观点， 虽然它可能会让斯宾塞和那些我们可以称之黑格尔进化论者的人感到满意， 但不能被更全心全意的变革拥护者充分的。

We will begin with the problem of the physical conceptions of space and time and matter, which, as we have seen, are challenged by the contentions of the evolutionists.

我们将从空间、时间和物质的物理概念问题开始， 正如我们所见， 进化论者的争论对这些概念提出挑战。

It is admitted by most evolutionists that mammals are descended from a marsupial form; and if so, the mammary glands will have been at first developed within the marsupial sack.

大多数进化论者都承哺乳动物有袋类动物的后代；如果这样， 那么乳腺将首先在有袋动物的袋内发育。

To evolutionists may be left the processes of evolution; to historians the single interest is the law of reaction between force and force — between mind and nature — the law of progress.

进化论者可能会留给进化过程；对历史学家来说，唯一的兴趣力与力之间——思想与自然之间——进步的规律。

Of course both priests and evolutionists bitterly denied this heresy, but what they affirmed or denied in 1860 had very little importance indeed for 1960. Anarchy lost no ground meanwhile. The problem became only the more fascinating.

当然，牧师和进化论者都强烈否这种异端邪说，但他们在 1860 年所肯定或否的东西在 1960 年确实没有什么重要性。与此同时，无政府状态并没有失去任何立足之地。这个问题变得更加令人着迷。

History offered a feeble and delusive smile at the sound of the word; evolutionists and ethnologists disputed its very existence; no one knew what to make of it; yet, without the clue, history was a nursery tale.

听到这个词，历史露出微弱而虚幻的微笑；进化论者和民族学家争论它的存在；没有人知道该怎么做；然而，如果没有线索，历史就童话故事。