Social Darwinism
Most of you have heard on Charles Darwin. He’s the british scientist that is best remembered for playing with turtles on the Galapagos Islands, and coining the phrase survival of the fittest. What you probably don’t know is he came up with one of the most influencial theories on economics and human nature in the late 1800’s, Social Darwinism.
Social Darwinism is a term gave to describe the idea that humans, like animals and plants, compete in a struggle for existence in which natural selection results in the “survival of the fittest”. Many of the beliefs of social Darwinists were based on theories of evolution developed by Darwin.
The term social Darwinist is loosely applied to anyone who thinks that the human society is primarily interpreted in terms of biology, struggle, competition, or natural law. Natural law according to Darwin in The Descent of man, is a philosophy based on what are considered the permanent characteristics that all humans have in their nature.
Social Darwinism characterizes a variety of past and present social policies and theories, from attempts to reduce the power of goverment to theories exploring the biological causes of human behavior.
The Essay on Darwins Natural Selection
important so that we can understand our behavior, in other words, that way that we act. In this essay I will show that the majority of evidences supports the idea of evolution. The idea that Darwin had when he came up with his theory. I believe that Darwin's idea best describes how things evolved, and may still continue to evolve. In a scientific study of genes it was proven that evolution occurs. ...
One question that still weighs heavily around the term social Darwinism is: Is social Darwinism really a plausible outlook on human behavior and society? or Is the concept of it just a means of rationalization for racism, imperialism and capitalism? For most people social Darwinism has negative implications because they consider it a rejection of compassion and social responsibility. This I’ll let you decide for yourself.
Social Darwinism originated in Britain during the second half of the 19th century, when Darwin addressed natural selection specifically to people in the Decent of the Man in 1871, a work that many interpreted as justifying cruel social policies at home and imperialism abroad according to the Encarta Online Encyclopedia. However social Darwinism still spread like wild fire with the support of many wealthy, influencial people including steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie.
The Englishman most accociated with social Darwinism, however, was sociologist Herbert Spencer. Spencer applied the term “survival of the fittest” to describe the outcome of competition between social groups. Many times Spencer argued that through competition social evolution would automatically produce prosperity and personal liberty unparalled in human history. In the U.S., Spencer gained notable support among intellectuals and some businessmen. Andrew Carnegie even served as Spencer’s host during his visit to the United States in 1883.
The most prominent American social Darwinist of the 1880’s was William Graham Sumner. Who was quoted several times when speaking to audiences around the world that: ” I believe that there is no alternative to the survival of the fittest theory”. Critics of social Darwinism seized this comment to argue that Sumner advocated a “dog-eat-dog” outlook on human behavior that justified oppressive social policies. Some later historians have argued that Sumner’s critics took his statements out of context and misrepresented his views, which later lead to his decline as a respectible speaker.
The Essay on Social Darwinism
In the late 19th Century a term called Social Darwinism was established to describe the idea that humans, like plants and animals, compete in a struggle for existence. Social Darwinists base their beliefs on theories of evolution developed by British scientist and naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin also created "The Survival of the Fittest," meaning that the strong will survive and the weak will ...
Another well-known supporter of social Darwinism, was Walter Bagehot. Bagehot was a member of the struggle school of sociology which were supporters of social Darwinism. Bagehot expressed the fundemental ideas of social Darwinism, not through speaking but through writing. He wrote several books that argued that nations evolved principally by succeeding in conflicts with other groups.
Many groups and political strategies branched out from the basic term of social Darwinism in beginning of the 1900’s. Here are two examples, reform darwinism and laissez-faire economics.
Social reformers used Darwinism to advocate a stronger role for government and the introduction of various social policies. This movement became known as reform Darwinism. Reform Darwinists repeatedly argued that human beings need new ideas and institutions as they adapt to changing conditions. Many believed that the U.S. should reinterprete the Constitution in light of changing circumstances in American Society.
Most Reformers used the principles of evolution to justify sexist and racist ideas that undercut their belief in equality. The most extreme type of reform Darwinism was eugenics, a tern coined by Sir Francis Galton in 1883 from the Greek word eugenav, meaning well-born. Eugenists claimed that particular racial and social groups-usually wealthy Anglo-Saxons-were “naturally” superior to minority groups. They proposed to control human heredity by passing laws that forbid marriage between races or that restrict breeding for various social misfits such as criminals or the mentally ill.
Some social Darwinists argue that governments should not interfere with human competition by attempting to regulate the economy or cure social ills such as poverty. Instead they advocate a laissez-faire political and economic system. Laissez-faire is french for “let things alone”. Its favors capitalist self-interest, competition and natural consumer preferences as forces leading to optimal prosperity and freedom. It became strongly supported in the late 18th century by Social Darwinists against trade taxation and nationalist governmental control.
The principles of laissez-faire and free trade appealed strongly to the growing number of robber-barons of the Industrial Revolution. These business owners wished to be free of government regulations and taxation in order to pursue their own interests. But with the growth of industry laissez-faire led to abuses, especially in the use of child labor. More and more businesses combined to control production and prices for the benefit of the owners, so competition was eliminated.
The Term Paper on Social Darwinism In American History
Social Darwinism in American History Toward the end of the 19th century, the United States entered a period of growth and industrialisation. An abundance of natural recourses, cheap labour supply, and a self-sufficient food supply contributed to the industrialisation of the United States. This time was known as the American Industrial Revolution. Due to the growing prosperity of the United States, ...
State economic restraints and laissez-faire had to call for reform. Throughout the Western world goverment controls were reasserted.
Although social Darwinism was highly influential at the beginning of the 1900’s, it rapidly lost popularity and support after world war one. During the 1920’s and 30’s many political observers blamed it for the German military and the rise of Nazism. During this same time frame, advances in science also discredited social Darwinism. Scientists showed that the human culture sets people apart from aminals. By moving the emphasis away from biology and onto culture, they undermined social Darwinism’s biological foundations. Eugenics was discredited by a better understanding of genetics and eventually disgraced by Hilter’s use of eugenics to create an “Aryan” master race.
In the 1950’s many social theories based on biology began to gain renewed support after an American biologist sucessfully described the structure of DNA molecules. Then scientists produced studies of the biological basis of aggression, territoriality, mate selection, and other behaviors common in people and in animals, which revived the social Darwinist arguement that intelligence is mostly determined by biology rather then enviromental influences.
Many social Darwinism critics claim that it downplays the role of culture in human societies and justifies poverty and warfare in the name of natural selection. Such criticism has led to the decline in the influence of sociobiology and other forms of social Darwinism.
