Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism included to various theories and societal practices that purported to apply biological idea of natural selection as alive as survival of a fittest to sociology, economics and politics, and which were largely defined by scholars in Western Europe and North America in the 1870s. Social Darwinism holds that the strong see their wealth and power increase while the weak see their wealth and power decrease. Various social Darwinist schools of thought differ on which groups of people are the strong and which are the weak, and also 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 authoritarianism, conservatism, right-wing politics, eugenics, racism, sexism, homophobia, imperialism and/or fascism.
Social Darwinism declined in popularity as a purportedly scientific concept following the First World War, and was largely discredited by the end of the Second World War—partially due to its joining with Nazism and partially due to a growing scientific consensus that it was scientifically groundless. Later hypotheses that were categorized as social Darwinism were generally covered as such(a) by their opponents as a critique; their proponents did non identify themselves as social Darwinists. William Jennings Bryan argued that social Darwinism—leading to policies intentional to reward the most competitive—is a logical consequence of "Darwinism" the opinion of natural alternative in biology. Steven Pinker stated that this is a fallacy of appeal to nature, since the theory of natural choice is merely intended as a representation of a biological phenomenon and should non be taken to imply that this phenomenon is good or that it ought to be used as a moral guide in human society. While almost scholars recognize some historical links between the popularisation of Darwin's theory and forms of social Darwinism, they also keeps that social Darwinism is not a essential consequence of the principles of biological evolution. Social Darwinism is broadly accepted to be a pseudoscience not based on any empirical data or truth.
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 throw passages that can be interpreted as opposing aggressive individualism, while other passagesto promote it. Darwin's early evolutionary views and his opposition to slavery ran counter to numerous of the claims that social Darwinists would eventually do approximately the mental capabilities of the poor and indigenous peoples in the European colonies. After the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, one strand of Darwin's followers, led by Sir John Lubbock, argued that natural selection ceased to have all noticeable issue on humans one time organised societies had been formed. However, some scholars argue that Darwin's view gradually changed and came to incorporate views from other theorists such(a) as Herbert Spencer. Spencer published his Lamarckian evolutionary ideas approximately society before Darwin first published his hypothesis in 1859, and both Spencer and Darwin promoted their own conceptions of moral values. Spencer supported laissez-faire capitalism on the basis of his Lamarckian belief that struggle for survival spurred self-improvement which could be inherited. An important proponent in Germany was Ernst Haeckel, who popularized Darwin's thought and his personal interpretation of it, and used it as living to contribute to a new creed, the monist movement.