Gradualism, from the Latingradus ("step"), is a hypothesis, a theory or a tenet assuming that change comes about gradually or that variation is gradual in nature and happens over time as opposed to in large steps.[1]Uniformitarianism,incrementalism, andreformism are similar concepts.
Gradualism can also refer to desired, controlled change in society, institutions, or policies. For example,social democrats anddemocratic socialists see the socialist society as achieved through gradualism.
In the natural sciences, gradualism is thetheory which holds that profound change is the cumulative product of slow but continuous processes, often contrasted withcatastrophism. The theory was proposed in 1795 byJames Hutton, a Scottish geologist, and was later incorporated intoCharles Lyell's theory ofuniformitarianism. Tenets from both theories were applied tobiology and formed the basis of earlyevolutionary theory.
Charles Darwin was influenced by Lyell'sPrinciples of Geology, which explained both uniformitarian methodology and theory. Using uniformitarianism, which states that one cannot make an appeal to any force or phenomenon which cannot presently be observed (seecatastrophism), Darwin theorized that the evolutionary process must occur gradually, not insaltations, since saltations are not presently observed, and extreme deviations from the usual phenotypic variation would be more likely to be selected against.
Gradualism is often confused with the concept ofphyletic gradualism. It is a term coined byStephen Jay Gould andNiles Eldredge to contrast with their model ofpunctuated equilibrium, which is gradualist itself, but argues that most evolution is marked by long periods of evolutionary stability (called stasis), which is punctuated by rare instances of branching evolution.[2]
Phyletic gradualism is a model ofevolution which theorizes that mostspeciation is slow, uniform and gradual.[3] When evolution occurs in this mode, it is usually by the steady transformation of a wholespecies into a new one (through a process calledanagenesis). In this view no clear line of demarcation exists between an ancestral species and a descendant species, unlesssplitting occurs.
Punctuated gradualism is amicroevolutionaryhypothesis that refers to a species that has "relative stasis over a considerable part of its total duration [and] underwent periodic, relatively rapid, morphologic change that did not lead to lineage branching". It is one of the three common models ofevolution. While the traditional model of palaeontology, the phylogenetic model, states that features evolved slowly without any direct association with speciation, the relatively newer and more controversial idea ofpunctuated equilibrium claims that major evolutionary changes do not happen over a gradual period but in localized, rare, rapid events of branching speciation. Punctuated gradualism is considered to be a variation of these models, lying somewhere in between thephyletic gradualism model and the punctuated equilibrium model. It states that speciation is not needed for a lineage to rapidly evolve from one equilibrium to another but may show rapid transitions between long-stable states.
Inpolitics, gradualism is the hypothesis that social change can be achieved in small, discrete increments rather than in abrupt strokes such asrevolutions oruprisings. Gradualism is one of the defining features of politicalliberalism andreformism.[4]Machiavellian politics pushes politicians to espouse gradualism.
Gradualism insocial change implemented throughreformist means is a moral principle to which theFabian Society is committed. In a more general way,reformism is the assumption that gradual changes through and within existing institutions can ultimately change asociety's fundamentaleconomic system and political structures; and that an accumulation of reforms can lead to the emergence of an entirely different economic system and form of society than present-daycapitalism. That hypothesis of social change grew out of opposition torevolutionary socialism, which contends thatrevolution is necessary for fundamental structural changes to occur.
Insocialist politics and within the socialist movement, the concept of gradualism is frequently distinguished from reformism, with the former insisting that short-term goals need to be formulated and implemented in such a way that they inevitably lead into long-term goals. It is most commonly associated with thelibertarian socialist concept of dual power and is seen as a middle way between reformism andrevolutionism.
Martin Luther King Jr. was opposed to the idea of gradualism as a method of eliminatingsegregation. The United States government wanted to try to integrateAfrican-Americans and European-Americans slowly into the same society, but many believed it was a way for the government to put off actually doing anything about racial segregation:
This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
— Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered August 28, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.[5]
In the terminology ofNWO-related speculations, gradualism refers to the gradual implementation of atotalitarianworld government.
Inlinguistics,language change is seen as gradual, the product of chain reactions and subject tocyclic drift.[6] The view thatcreole languages are the product ofcatastrophism is heavily disputed.[7][8]
Gradualism is the approach of certain schools of Buddhism and other Eastern philosophies (e.g.Theravada orYoga), thatenlightenment can be achieved step by step, through an arduous practice. The opposite approach, thatinsight is attained all at once, is calledsubitism. The debate on the issue was very important to the history of the development ofZen, which rejected gradualism,[9] and to the establishment of the opposite approach within theTibetan Buddhism, after theDebate of Samye. It was continued in other schools ofIndian andChinese philosophy.[10]
Contradictorial gradualism is the paraconsistent treatment offuzziness developed byLorenzo Peña which regards true contradictions as situations wherein a state of affairs enjoys only partial existence.
