The word adaptation is used in so many different ways that the meaning is often obscure. Physiologists, as explained below, often use the word to describe processes that occur within an individual organism. Scientists, in contrast, restrict the use of the word to evolutionary processes and products. To say that an organism is adapted to its environment is a truism, since if the organism were not it would be dead. Scientists are interested in going beyond this truism, to study how and why successful adaptations have evolved.

The concept of adaptation grew from the concept of causation. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle made reference to four different kinds of causation, in which he used the metaphor of building a house:

- The material cause is the materials from which the house is built.

- The efficient cause is the set of processes by which it is built.

- The formal cause is the abstract design of the house.

- The final cause is the purpose for which the house was built.

Modern science uses causation, therefore adaptation, only in the sense of Aristotle's efficient cause. Although the success with which an organism is adapted to its environment may result from how closely its structure fits that of an abstract design for the perfect organism under those circumstances, scientists do not focus on the category of formal causes separate from the efficient causes.

The idea that organisms are perfectly adapted to their environments predates evolutionary theory. This idea was central to natural theology in which the perfect fit of organism and environment was considered evidence of divine creation. As British chemist Robert Boyle wrote in the 17th century, "There is incomparably more art expressed in the structure of a dog's foot than in that of the famous clock at Strasbourg." English theologian William Paley, in his famous 1802 book Natural Theology, used perfect adaptation of organisms as evidence that a Supreme Being had created them. At the time Paley wrote his book there was no credible evolutionary theory that could challenge this view. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, published in 1859, provided what most scientists consider the first credible natural explanation of adaptation. . .

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