Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Social Darwinism.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Evolution (Biology) --- Social Darwinism. --- Philosophy.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Evolution (Biology). --- Social Darwinism. --- Darwin, Charles, --- Influence.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This Element is a philosophical history of Social Darwinism. It begins by discussing the meaning of the term, moving then to its origins, paying particular attention to whether it is Charles Darwin or Herbert Spencer who is the true father of the idea. It gives an exposition of early thinking on the subject, covering Darwin and Spencer themselves and then on to Social Darwinism as found in American thought, with special emphasis on Andrew Carnegie, and Germany with special emphasis on Friedrich von Bernhardi. Attention is also paid to outliers, notably the Englishman Alfred Russel Wallace, the Russian Peter Kropotkin, and the German Friedrich Nietzsche. From here we move into the twentieth century looking at Adolf Hitler - hardly a regular Social Darwinian given he did not believe in evolution - and in the Anglophone world, Julian Huxley and Edward O. Wilson, who reflected the concerns of their society.

Social Darwinism. --- Darwinism, Social --- Competition --- Social change --- Social conflict --- Social evolution --- Social Darwinism

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

The Left has traditionally assumed that human nature is so malleable, so perfectible, that it can be shaped in almost any direction. Conservatives object, arguing that social order arises not from rational planning but from the spontaneous order of instincts and habits. Darwinian biology sustains conservative social thought by showing how the human capacity for spontaneous order arises from social instincts and a moral sense shaped by natural selection in human evolutionary history.

Conservatism. --- Evolution (Biology) --- Social Darwinism. --- Social aspects. --- Darwin, Charles, --- Influence.