Download Darwin and Natural Selection

Darwin and Social Darwinism
CHY4U
Unit 3
Day 1
Review: Britain in the
th
19
century
• Economic change?
• Social change?
• The political spectrum
• We now know that even biological views were changing…
How did natural selection shape views and
th
perspectives of the 19 century?
Darwin
Traditional Thinking
________ thinking
Religious Dogma
________ is key
Divine Creation
________and progress are
possible and common
_______ is not desirable – God
created everything perfect
How did natural selection shape views and
th
perspectives of the 19 century?
Darwin
Traditional Thinking
Scientific thinking
Religious Dogma
Environment is key
Divine Creation
Change and progress are
possible and common
Change is not desirable – God
created everything perfect
NATURAL selection vs. Divine CREATION
Day 2
Question: Where did Darwin Stand on the
Political Spectrum?
“I would not be a Tory, if it was merely on account of their cold hearts
about that scandal to Christian Nations, Slavery."
- To Revd. John Henslow, 1832
"It does one's heart good to hear how things are going on in England.
Hurrah for the honest Whigs. I trust they will soon attack that
monstrous stain on our boasted liberty, Colonial Slavery.
- To John Herbert, 1833
Darwin, Charles. “Letter to J.S. Henslow” edited by the Darwin Correspondence Project, 2016. (Rio de Janeiro: 1832)
https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-LETT-171.xml
Darwin Charles. “Letter to John Herbert” edited by the About Darwin, 2016. (Rio Plata: 1833).
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/darwin/WhoWas.html
In 1835 Darwin examined finches on
Galapagos Islands…
Although the islands were relatively
close together, formed by the same
rocks, with similar climates, at similar
heights…
the species of finches between the
islands were different!
Jonathan Clements, Darwin’s Notebook: The Life, Times, and Discoveries of Charles Robert Darwin (London: Quid
Publishing, 2009), 50.
“The most curious fact is the perfect gradation
in the size of the beaks in the different species
of Geospiza*, from one as large as that of a
hawfinch to that of a chaffinch… there are no
less than six species with insensibly graduated
beaks… Seeing this gradation and diversity of
structure in one small, intimately related group
of birds, one might really fancy that from an
original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one
species had been taken and modified for
different ends.”
Paul’s Birding Diary, http://paulsbirdingdiary.blogspot.ca/2013/03/hawfinch-and-othergarden-birds.html
*A type of finch
Jonathan Clements, Darwin’s Notebook: The Life, Times, and Discoveries of Charles Robert Darwin (London:
Quid Publishing, 2009), 65.
PBS. Evolution Library. Adaptive Radiation – Darwin’s Finches. 2001.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/image_pop/l_016_02.html (Nov. 10, 2011)
How did other scientific developments
help Darwin shape views in 19th
century England?
Influence of Charles Lyell
• In 1830, Lyell published
Principles of Geology
• The book argued that slow
natural forces, not Biblical
forces, affected the earth’s
formation
• In particular, the earth’s crust
shifted. Darwin experienced
an earthquake while in Chile
and saw the ground rise by
eight feet.
• Interestingly, Lyell did not
believe in evolution.
PBS, Evolution, 2001 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/4/image_pop/l_024_01.html>
(April 28, 2008).
Influence of Thomas Malthus
• In 1838, Malthus saw that the
inequalities created by England’s
Industrial Revolution.
• The owners become rich through the
means of production, while the workers
were exploited
• Through urbanization, cities became
more crowded and ordinary people
struggled for their daily existence
• Population growth would lead to an
inevitable shortfall of food
• Humans in a ceaseless struggle for
existence to survive famine, disease and
war
• “These ideas galvanized Darwin’s thinking about the
struggles for survival in the wild, where restraint is
unknown. Before reading Malthus, Darwin had
thought that living things reproduced just enough
individuals to keep population stable. But now he
came to realize that, as in human society, populations
bred beyond their means, leaving survivors and
losers in the effort to exist.”
PBS, Evolution – Darwin and Malthus, 2001 ,
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/02/5/1_25_01.html (April 24, 2015).
Question
• From the voyage, Darwin saw first hand evidence of the struggle for
survival. Both Lyell and Malthus’ theory contributed to Darwin’s
thinking. Who had more influence on the shaping of Darwin’s theory?
Social Darwinism
• How might Darwin’s theory of “the survival of the
fittest” be misapplied to various human races?
• Social Darwinism: the theory that persons, groups,
and races are subject to the same laws of natural
selection as Charles Darwin had perceived in plants
and animals in nature.
• Popular in the late 19th and early 20th century
• The struggle for existence is present between humans in
society
• Survival of the fittest: The cultures of weaker groups would
be limited by the power and cultural influence of stronger
groups
• Darwinism in a social context:
• sociocultural progress is the product of intergroup conflict
and competition
• the socially elite classes (as those possessing wealth and
power) possess biological superiority in the struggle for
existence
Assessment: How did other scientific
developments help Darwin shape
views in 19th century England?
Briefly describe the context (social, political, economic) of
the 19th century. Briefly explain natural selection. Then, use
thinkers, concepts and theories to answer the question. A
good answer would relate these developments to the
context.
Write in your HTC journal.