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SOCIAL DARWINISM, HERBERT SPENCER
• COPYING CHARLES DARWIN’S THEORY OF
EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION IN PLANT
AND ANIMAL DEVELOPMENT, MANY PEOPLE IN THE
19TH CENTURY TRIED TO APPLY THAT TO
HUMANS.
• MANY ‘PSEUDO-SCIENTISTS’ BELIEVED THAT THE
REASON THAT WHITE EUROPEAN CHRISTIANS
DOMINATED THE GLOBE COULD BE EXPLAINED BY
THESE IDEAS.
•
"THIS SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST, WHICH I HAVE
HERE SOUGHT TO EXPRESS IN MECHANICAL
TERMS, IS THAT WHICH MR. DARWIN HAS
CALLED 'NATURAL SELECTION', OR THE
PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE
STRUGGLE FOR LIFE.“
•
HERBERT SPENCER
“SCIENTIFIC” RACISM
•
•
HERBERT SPENSER WAS AN ENGLISH
PHILOSOPHER WHO EMBRACED
DARWINIAN THEORY AND TOOK IT TO
INCLUDE ALL ASPECTS OF HUMAN
EXISTENCE WHICH HE THOUGHT
PROGRESSED IN THE SAME WAY.
HE CALLED THIS ‘SURVIVAL OF THE
FITTEST’ ,AND THIS LED TO THE STUDY OF
RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS IN A PSEUDOSCIENTIFIC WAY, SUBSCRIBING TO THE
THEORY OF POLYGENISM.
“SCIENTIFIC” RACISM
• POLYGENISM IS THE IDEA THAT
HUMANS ARE IN FACT, DIFFERENT
SPECIES, AND THE PHYSICAL
DIFFERENTIATION OF “RACES” IS
INDICATIVE OF THIS.
GOSPEL OF WEALTH, PHILANTHROPY
•
ANDREW CARNEGIE-ONE OF THE GREAT FINANCIAL GIANTS OF
HIS ERA, PUBLISHED AN ESSAY TITLED THE GOSPEL OF
WEALTH IN 1889, IN WHICH HE ARGUED THAT THE
ACCUMULATION OF WEALTH WAS BENEFICIAL TO SOCIETY
AND THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE NO ACTION TO IMPEDE
IT. CARNEGIE BELIEVED THE RICH WERE TRUSTEES OF THEIR
MONEY, HOLDING IT UNTIL PROPER PUBLIC USES COULD BE
DISCOVERED. UNLIKE MANY OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES,
CARNEGIE PRACTICED WHAT HE PREACHED AND SPENT HIS
LAST YEARS GIVING AWAY HIS VAST FORTUNE. ONE OF HIS
MANY CHARITABLE VENTURES WAS THE FUNDING OF MORE
THAN 2,800 PUBLIC LIBRARIES. CARNEGIE WROTE, “THE MAN
WHO DIES RICH DIES DISGRACED."
• GOSPEL OF WEALTH- THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH, OR
SOMETIMES THE GOSPEL OF SUCCESS, WAS THE
TERM FOR A NOTION PROMOTED BY MANY
SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSMEN THAT THEIR MASSIVE
WEALTH WAS A SOCIAL BENEFIT FOR ALL. THE
GOSPEL OF WEALTH WAS A SOFTER AND MORE
PALATABLE VERSION OF SOCIAL DARWINISM. THE
ADVOCATES LINKED WEALTH WITH
RESPONSIBILITY, ARGUING THAT THOSE WITH
GREAT MATERIAL POSSESSIONS HAD EQUALLY
GREAT OBLIGATIONS TO SOCIETY.