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Social Darwinism
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Social Darwinism is a modern name given to various theories of society that
emerged in the United Kingdom, North America, and Western Europe in the
1870s, which claim to apply biological concepts of natural selection and
survival of the fittest to sociology and politics. Economically, social Darwinists
argue that the strong should see their wealth and power increase while the weak
should see their wealth and power decrease. Different social Darwinist groups
have differing views about which groups of people are considered to be the
strong and which groups of people are considered to be the weak, and they also
hold different opinions about the precise mechanism that should be used to
reward strength and punish weakness. Many such views stress competition
between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism, while others are claimed to have
motivated ideas of eugenics, racism, imperialism, fascism, Nazism, and struggle
between national or racial groups.
The term social Darwinism gained widespread currency when used after 1944
by opponents of these earlier concepts. The majority of those who have been
categorised as social Darwinists, did not identify themselves by such a label.
Creationists have often maintained that social Darwinism—leading to policies
designed to reward the most competitive—is a logical consequence of
"Darwinism" (the theory of natural selection in biology). Some biologists and
historians have stated that this is a fallacy of appeal to nature, since the theory
of natural selection is merely intended as a description of a biological
phenomenon and should not be taken to imply that this phenomenon is good or
that it ought to be used as a moral guide in human society. While most scholars
recognize some historical links between the popularisation of Darwin's theory
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and forms of social Darwinism, they also maintain that social Darwinism is not
a necessary consequence of the principles of biological evolution
Scholars debate the extent to which the various social Darwinist ideologies
reflect Charles Darwin's own views on human social and economic issues. His
writings have passages that can be interpreted as opposing aggressive
individualism, while other passages appear to promote it. Some scholars argue
that Darwin's view gradually changed and came to incorporate views from other
theorists such as Herbert Spencer. But Spencer's Lamarckian evolutionary ideas
about society were published before Darwin first published his theory, and both
promoted their own conceptions of moral values. Spencer supported laissezfaire capitalism on the basis of his Lamarckian belief that struggle for survival
spurred self-improvement which could be inherited.
Origin of the term
The term first appeared in Europe in 1877, and around this time it was used by
sociologists opposed to the concept. The term was popularized in the United
States in 1944 by the American historian Richard Hofstadter who used it in the
ideological war effort against fascism to denote a reactionary creed which
promoted competitive strife, racism and chauvinism. Hofstadter later also
recognized (what he saw as) the influence of Darwinist and other evolutionary
ideas upon those with collectivist views, enough to devise a term for the
phenomenon, "Darwinist collectivism." Before Hofstadter's work the use of the
term "social Darwinism" in English academic journals was quite rare. In fact,
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...there is considerable evidence that the entire concept of "social Darwinism" as
we know it today was virtually invented by Richard Hofstadter. Eric Foner, in
an introduction to a then-new edition of Hofstadter's book published in the early
1990s, declines to go quite that far. "Hofstadter did not invent the term Social
Darwinism," Foner writes, "which originated in Europe in the 1860s and
crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century. But before he wrote, it was
used only on rare occasions; he made it a standard shorthand for a complex of
late-nineteenth-century ideas, a familiar part of the lexicon of social thought."
— Jeff Riggenbach
The term "social Darwinism" has rarely been used by advocates of the supposed
ideologies or ideas; instead it has almost always been used pejoratively by its
opponents. The term draws upon the common use of the term Darwinism, which
has been used to describe a range of evolutionary views, but in the late 19th
century was applied more specifically to natural selection as first advanced by
Charles Darwin to explain speciation in populations of organisms. The process
includes competition between individuals for limited resources, popularly but
inaccurately described by the phrase "survival of the fittest," a term coined by
sociologist Herbert Spencer.
While the term has been applied to the claim that Darwin's theory of evolution
by natural selection can be used to understand the social endurance of a nation
or country, social Darwinism commonly refers to ideas that predate Darwin's
publication of On the Origin of Species. Others whose ideas are given the label
include the 18th century clergyman Thomas Malthus, and Darwin's cousin
Francis Galton who founded eugenics towards the end of the 19th century.
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Theories and origins
The term Darwinism had been coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in his April
1860 review of "On the Origin of Species",[14] and by the 1870s it was used to
describe a range of concepts of evolutionism or development, without any
specific commitment to Charles Darwin's own theory.
The first use of the phrase "social Darwinism" was in Joseph Fisher's 1877
article on The History of Landholding in Ireland which was published in the
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Fisher was commenting on how a
system for borrowing livestock which had been called "tenure" had led to the
false impression that the early Irish had already evolved or developed land
tenure;
These arrangements did not in any way affect that which we understand by the
word " tenure," that is, a man's farm, but they related solely to cattle, which we
consider a chattel. It has appeared necessary to devote some space to this
subject, inasmuch as that usually acute writer Sir Henry Maine has accepted the
word " tenure " in its modern interpretation, and has built up a theory under
which the Irish chief " developed " into a feudal baron. I can find nothing in the
Brehon laws to warrant this theory of social Darwinism, and believe further
study will show that the Cain Saerrath and the Cain Aigillue relate solely to
what we now call chattels, and did not in any way affect what we now call the
freehold, the possession of the land.
— Fisher 1877.
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Despite the fact that social Darwinism bears Charles Darwin's name, it is also
linked today with others, notably Herbert Spencer, Thomas Malthus, and
Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics. In fact, Spencer was not described as a
social Darwinist until the 1930s, long after his death.
Darwin himself gave serious consideration to Galton's work, but considered the
ideas of "hereditary improvement" impractical. Aware of weaknesses in his own
family, Darwin was sure that families would naturally refuse such selection and
wreck the scheme. He thought that even if compulsory registration was the only
way to improve the human race, this illiberal idea would be unacceptable, and it
would be better to publicize the "principle of inheritance" and let people decide
for themselves.
In The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex of 1882 Darwin
described how medical advances meant that the weaker were able to survive and
have families, and as he commented on the effects of this, he cautioned that
hard reason should not override sympathy and considered how other factors
might reduce the effect:
Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who
has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be
highly injurious to the race of man. It is surprising how soon a want of care, or
care wrongly directed, leads to the degeneration of a domestic race; but
excepting in the case of man himself, hardly any one is so ignorant as to allow
his worst animals to breed.
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The aid which we feel impelled to give to the helpless is mainly an incidental
result of the instinct of sympathy, which was originally acquired as part of the
social instincts, but subsequently rendered, in the manner previously indicated,
more tender and more widely diffused. Nor could we check our sympathy, even
at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our
nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he
knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally
to neglect the weak and helpless, it could only be for a contingent benefit, with
an overwhelming present evil. ... We must therefore bear the undoubtedly bad
effects of the weak surviving and propagating their kind; but there appears to be
at least one check in steady action, namely that the weaker and inferior
members of society do not marry so freely as the sound; and this check might be
indefinitely increased by the weak in body or mind refraining from marriage,
though this is more to be hoped for than expected.
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