   Nineteenth century evolutionary theory is complicated in that in the cultures which most obviously experienced a widespread acceptance of evolution, inspired apparently by Darwin’s 1859 publication of Origin of the Species, evolutionary ideas had already been present and Darwin’s mechanism for evolutionary change, natural selection, was not necessarily accepted. Rather, more deeply teleological accounts of nature were often put forward within an evolutionary framework. Mach came of intellectual age in 1860, right when this explosion of evolutionary ideas was starting. Unlike the disciplines of psychology and physics, he makes no contributions to evolutionary theory; however, his entire system is located within an evolutionary framework. This framework is not one that he argues for; rather, it was the metaphysics (yes, metaphysics) he adapted from his nineteenth century German intellectual culture. The two immediate influences on Mach in this regard were Herring and Haeckel, or at least we can turn to their writings to understand the evolutionary tradition Mach was part of.