Social Darwinism Lewis Henry Morgan

People such as Adolf Hitler used Social Darwinism and Eugenics to justify classifying some people as inferior and the genocide of those people. “A substantial case can be made for social Darwinism as one of the significant factors that led to the war” (Keas, 2010). “Hitler believed that the human gene pool could be improved by using selective breeding similar to how farmers breed superior cattle strains. Hitler’s government relied heavily upon Darwinism, development and implementation of policies designed to protect the superior race” (Bergman,

One of the largest examples of laws and policies put in place that reflect the ideas of Social Darwinism would include the pre-existing condition policy that Health Insurance companies put in place that prevent people from obtaining health insurance. This policy states that someone who is born with/ recently finds out they have a disease will not be allowed to gain health insurance from that company because it is a pre-existing condition before they applied to health insurance. Some of the conditions included are some of the most common, as well as the most deadly, condition in the U.S., such as diabetes.

Social Darwinism was a slight distortion of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, which stated that species change over time because those with heritable traits that help survival are the one’s that reproduce. “Social Darwinists,” like Sumner, applied Darwin’s theory onto the human race, and then used it to justify his views in his article. He claimed that those in society who are powerful are innately better than those who are not, and their superiority is proof of this (Class notes

Social Darwinism is a theory that individuals, peoples, and groups are subject to darwinian laws of natural selection. Another way to describe social darwinism is survival of the fittest. The strongest and the smartest will survive. It is now largely discredited, it was advocated in the late 19th and early 20th century by Herbert Spencer and others. It was used to justify political conservation, imperialism, to discourage intervention and reform and racism. This theory was used to support the laissez faire capitalism and political conservatism.

Social Darwinism is based off of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. He uses the concept of survival of the fittest. This was used to justify class distinctions and to explain the reason for poverty. Modern science declared that the failure to advance in society was due to the lack of self reliance and determination. They acted down on people who needed government aid. Even during the depression people still believed the notion that the poor were responsible for their fate. The idea of natural superiority was around since the Civil War. So much so, we thought it was okay to own human beings.

Social Darwinism is a term to describe the idea that humans compete for existence just like the rest of the animal kingdom. Darwin used this term to attempt to rationalize racism, capitalism, and imperialism. It simplifies the human’s desire for power. Now it is widely discredited and scrutinized because its a “ rejection of compassion and social responsibility.” (1)

Already in the late 19th century, the American Federation of Labor had begun to represent a growing segment of the American population discontented with the status quo of corporate exploitation. At the onset of the 20th century however this message began to take particular weight, as evidenced by the tripling of the AFL’s membership and the rise of the Industrial Workers of the World. Labor unions, the Socialist Party and progressives as a whole took issue with the doctrine of Social Darwinism and moved forward as a somewhat united front with the goal of bringing meaningful change to American society.

The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution left America’s economy and cities in a prosperous state. Immigrants flocked to the United States in search of the American Dream, and rising cities like Chicago thrived off of the meat packing and steel industries. However, the American Dream for many newcomers wasn’t all that it seemed; corrupt political bosses and machines ruled major city politics, making the working and living conditions of immigrants employed for these corporations unsubstantial. After going undercover in a meat packing plant, muckraker Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906 to expose the repulsive conditions that the lower class worked in. An initial reading of this piece focuses strongly on the ideas of a capitalistic society

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

The theory of social Darwinism was used to justify European imperialism. “It is an application of the theory of natural selection that says ‘only the strong survive’, to human issues that are social, political, and economic.”

2. Racial theories were an example of social Darwinism, when people are thought of as “unable” or “not intelligent enough” to establish sturdiness in their own country, but especially their government.

Charles Darwin broached the theory of natural selection in his book the Origin of Species, which has been considered the basis of evolutionary biology to this day. Natural selection is when populations of a species evolve over the course of many generations. Darwin believed that species were not created separately, but instead, species were derived from one another. In other words, the evolution of species creates many variations among creatures, and this is because all of those species came from a common ancestor, and characteristics changed to increase the species chance of survival.

Social Darwinism is a theory that competition among all individuals, groups, nations or ideas drives social evolution in human societies. The term draws upon Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, where competition between individual organisms drives biological evolutionary change through the survival of the fittest. The term was popularized in 1944 by the American historian Richard Hofstadter, and has generally been used by critics rather than advocates of what the term is supposed to

Social Darwinism was a sociological theory that merged Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection and the work of Herbert Spencer, Malthus, and other scientific and sociological theorists to justify imperialism, racism, and conservative economic policies. The overall acceptance of the power of nature in defining human beings developed during the 18th century Enlightenment. Europe’s exploration not only brought about immense economic and agricultural growth, but also exposed them to “human behavior and life patterns within environments and under circumstances dramatically different than their own” (4). The most popular catch phrases of Darwinism, “struggle for existence” and “survival of the fittest”, when applied to the life of man in society, suggested that nature would provide that the best competitors in a competitive situation would win, and that this process would lead to continuing improvement” (6. Hoft). This misinterpreted sense of superiority engulfed much of society at the time and was used to justify the logistics behind certain actions regarding capitalism, racism, and imperialism. Furthermore, it served as the backbone of some of the most heinous acts imaginable including the genocide and sterilization of certain groups of people.

*****Civilisation has been described as going through stages by philosophers as far back as millennia ago. A. Comte, H. Spencer, K. Marx, L. H. Morgan, and E. B. Tylor, took to describing civilisation as evolving. They were joined in this by many scholars of history. For these theories to works some assumptions were made. The first was that basic human nature is the same throughout. That regardless of which path societies take they were heading in the same