Social Darwinism: Applying Evolutionary Concepts to Sociology and Politics, Slides of Theory of Evolution

Download Social Darwinism: Applying Evolutionary Concepts to Sociology and Politics and more Slides Theory of Evolution in PDF only on Docsity!

SOCIAL DARWINISM

Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism is a name given to various

theories of which claim to apply biological

concepts of natural selection and survival of the

fittest to sociology and politics.

• The term Darwinism had been coined by Thomas

Henry Huxley in his April 1860 review of "On the

Origin of Species

• and by the 1870 s it was used to describe a range

of concepts of evolutionism or development,

without any specific commitment to Charles

Darwin's own theory.

Social Darwinists

• In The Social Organism ( 1860 ), Spencer compares society to a living organism and argues that, just as biological organisms evolve through natural selection, society evolves and increases in complexity through analogous processes

• Social Darwinism is an ideology of society that seeks to apply biological concepts of Darwinism or of evolutionary theory to sociology and politics, often under the assumption that conflict between groups in society leads to social progress, as superior groups out-compete inferior ones.

• With this, according to Darwin, the species are

said to have evolved.

• The wealthy businessmen used this theory in the

sense of humans and society.

• Herbert Spencer, an English social philosopher

and promoter of Social Darwinism, stated that

Darwin's theory of natural selection should be

used in the industries of business and

marketplace.

• Survival of the Fittest
• The theory of Social Darwinism can be summed

up in the phrase, "Survival of the Fittest." At least

that's how the wealthy industrialists made it

sound like.

• They stated that all the individuals in the society

who were the target of poverty, instability, and

problems were in that place due to their own

weakness and actions.

• They were "unfit" for the society around them.

• William Graham Sumner, an American Darwinist,

believed that helping the poor and lower class

people was simply going against the laws of

nature, and that this would only maintain the

"misfit" population.

• Going along with the conservative trend that was

appearing in the South, the framers of Social

Darwinism opposed the intervention of the

government in social and economic lives of the

people.

• They were, of course, mainly referring to themselves since any restriction or limitation law from the Congress could function as a speed bump for the wealthy businessmen and industrialists.
• This anti- intervention philosophy became known as Laissez Faire. The Industrialists, however, supported any kind of government assistance, such as tariffs and grants, to the industry and business.

WHAT IS SOCIAL DARWINISM?

• In 1859 , English naturalist and geologist, Charles Darwin, published his theory of evolution and natural selection in the work, On The Origin of Species.
• This theory argued that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and further explained that this evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which a species will either adapt to changes in their environments and survive as a species, or a species will fail to adapt to environmental changes and eventually go extinct.

• In the 1860 s and 1870 s, as word of Darwin’s theory of natural selection spread in the Western world, some philosophers and scientists made new interpretations of his ideas. One of these philosophers and scientists was fellow Englishman Herbert Spencer. Herbert Spencer promoted the theory of Social Darwinism.

• Looking at this apparent advantage, as well as the economic and military structures of the West, some argued that natural selection was playing out and that the race more suited to survival was indeed surviving. At its worst, the implications of Social Darwinism were used later as scientific justification for the Holocaust. The fascist Nazi Party claimed that the murder of Jews in World War II was an example of cleaning out the inferior genetics. Many philosophers noted evolutionary echoes in Hitler’s march to exterminate an entire race of people. Various other dictators and criminals have claimed the cause of Social Darwinism in carrying out their acts.

• Even without such actions, Social Darwinism has

proven to be a false and dangerous interpretation

of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

Scientists and evolutionists maintain that this

Social Darwinist interpretation is only loosely

based on Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

• They will admit to an obvious parallel between

Darwin’s theory of natural selection and

Spencer’s beliefs. In nature, the strong survive

and those best suited to survival will out-live the

weak.

• Thank u