give sanction...?

[juliana0403]

Hi, I don't understand what the underlined part...

Please help..
What does that mean in this context? Thank you.

Darwinian ideas are thus by no means necessarily optimistic. But those

who accepted them for the most part found them full of hope. They

seemed to make it quite clear that what is called progress is just as real

as what is called gravity. They gave the sanction of natural science

to moral and political ideas, much as Newton's ideas had done a century

and a half earlier.

[2006]

Hi, I don't understand what the underlined part... Neither do I.

Please help..
What does that mean in this context? Thank you.

Darwinian ideas are thus by no means necessarily optimistic. But those

who accepted them for the most part found them full of hope. They

seemed to make it quite clear that what is called progress is just as real

as what is called gravity. They gave the sanction of natural science

to moral and political ideas, much as Newton's ideas had done a century

and a half earlier.

2006

[Anglika]

Hi, I don't understand what the underlined part...

Please help..
What does that mean in this context? Thank you.

Darwinian ideas are thus by no means necessarily optimistic. But those

who accepted them for the most part found them full of hope. They

seemed to make it quite clear that what is called progress is just as real

as what is called gravity. They gave the sanction of natural science

to moral and political ideas, much as Newton's ideas had done a century

and a half earlier.

Cold you give us more context? What is the book/article from which you have taken this?