Concept

Social Darwinism

Overview

Social Darwinism, also referred to as social Spencerism, is a body of pseudoscientific theories and societal practices that claim to apply biological concepts of natural selection and "survival of the fittest" to the social realm, especially in regard to issues involving social class, economics, and politics. Despite bearing Charles Darwin's name, it is chiefly associated with Herbert Spencer, the main developer and leading exponent of what came to be known as "social Darwinist" ideas. Proponents of social Darwinism believe that the strong should see their wealth and power increase, while the weak should see their wealth and power decrease. Social Darwinist definitions of the strong and the weak vary, and differ on the precise mechanisms that reward strength and punish weakness. Many such views stress competition between individuals in laissez-faire capitalism, while others, emphasizing struggle between national or racial groups, support eugenics, racism, imperialism and/or fascism. Today, scientists generally consider social Darwinism to be discredited as a theoretical framework, but it persists within popular culture.

Scholars debate the extent to which the various social Darwinist ideologies reflect Darwin's own views on human social and economic issues. References to social Darwinism since have usually been pejorative. Some groups, including creationists such as William Jennings Bryan, argued social Darwinism is a logical consequence of Darwinism. Academics such as Steven Pinker have argued this is a fallacy of appeal to nature. While some scholars recognize historical links between the popularisation of Darwin's theory and forms of social Darwinism, they generally maintain that social Darwinism is not a necessary consequence of the principles of biological evolution. Other historians of biology reject the link between Darwinism and social Darwinism on the grounds that Spencer's ideas about evolution deviated from and conflicted with Darwin's.

Social Darwinism declined in popularity following World War I, and its purportedly scientific claims were largely discredited by the end of World War II—partially due to its association with Nazism and due to a growing scientific consensus that eugenics and scientific racism were unfounded.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

Yet those who know the habits of the continent of Europe are aware how apparently small a motive often outweighs the desire of money getting, even in the operations which have money getting for their direct object. The more highly the science of ethology is cultivated, and the better the diversities of individual and national character are understood, the smaller, probably, will the number of propositions become…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Social Darwinism is.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Darwin shows, there must have been a tendency to divergence, causing the contrasts between groups to become more and more pronounced. By the disappearance of intermediate forms, less fitted for special spheres of existence than the extreme forms they connected, the differences between the extreme forms must be rendered more decided; and so, from indistinct and unstable varieties, must slowly be produced distinct and…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
The author is tied to Social Darwinism in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
The tyranny of this idiosyncrasy, however, results in the theory of "adaptation" being pushed forward into the van of the argument, exploited; adaptation--that means to say, a second-class activity, a mere capacity for "reacting"; in fact, life itself has been defined (by Herbert Spencer) as an increasingly effective internal adaptation to external circumstances. This definition, however, fails to realise the real…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals The Complete Works, Volume Thirteen, edited by Dr. Oscar Levy.
The author is tied to Social Darwinism in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Social Darwinism

Overview

Possible passages

Philosophers who discussed Social Darwinism

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Place in the tradition