Definition
Set of ideologies loosely based on Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection that is used to justify certain political, economic, and social policies.
Introduction
Social Darwinism is the co-option of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, to justify certain political and economic practices in human societies. In 1859, Darwin introduced the idea that organisms are in a constant “struggle for survival” in his seminal work On the Origin of Species. However, Darwin never posited about the functioning of human societies in his seminal text. Instead, biologist Herbert Spencer drew parallels between his own economic theories and Darwin’s biological ones, claiming that the struggle for survival promoted self-improvement in people. In 1864, Spencer published Principles of Biology, wherein he promoted the idea that people could genetically pass-on to their...
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Olzer, R. (2019). Social Darwinism. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_137-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_137-1
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