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Social Darwinism

2023-03-20 21:50:33

Social Darwinism is a series of theories that spread the concept of social existence, living in the same direction as Charles Darwin's selection of natural creatures and survival of the fittest. It was promoted by Richard Hofstadter in 1944.

The term "social Darwinism" was made by Thomas Henry Huxley in his comment on Darwin's "Origin of Species" in 1860. However, the modern concept of social Darwinism did not appear until the 1940s and 1950s, with the emergence of ideologies like fascism. . It is used to support the laissez - faireism and political conservatism and to oppose the rise of fascism. The main supporters of social Darwinism are Herbert Spencer, Thomas Malthus and William Graham Sumner. But they explicitly did not use the term "social Darwinism" to explain their work.

Social Darwinism spreads the belief that society as an organism survives by eliminating the weak (in this case, the poor), while the more powerful unit the rich survives with survival of the fittest. Therefore, the rich grows between the poor and the weak. Stratification of the class is a natural result as there is natural inequality among people. The rich are thought to manage property and possess excellent qualities such as diligence, morality, moderation. Social Darwinists are interested in the concept of natural selection and the concept of survival of the fittest, but their argument has little to do with Darwin's concept of biological evolution. Indeed, it is more used in sociological and political context.

Social Darwinism was used to promote colonialism, imperialism, eugenics, and racist ideology. State intervention is considered to be detrimental to this process. Because the natural process requires exclusion of the weak. Free trade and competition are important for natural selection. Because the poor are considered weak and inappropriate, they are supposed to die, so they should help survive. The richest rich will survive on the poor as they have the ability to do this

Herbert Spencer is a popular person in the field of evolution research in the social field. He advertises that human evolution brings cooperation and the benefits of the local community. He believes that personal freedom will lead to a growing society. Therefore, state intervention hinders the natural evolution of society. If you can complete it freely, the population will create the best competitor, lead to social progress, which in turn will lead to the entire population.

Social Darwinism has been severely criticized by scholars about fascism and contribution to Nazism. Not only did it promote the power and conquest of imperialism and nationalism, but that belief in the survival of survival of the fittest ultimately led to the superiority of Nazi's pure race and Aryan. Social Darwinists claim that powerful countries can conquer and control white people in other countries and therefore can expand. Other weaker countries include "smaller breeds" and those that must be eliminated. As a result, European colonialists rarely suffer from adopting languages ​​and cultures of other countries.

19th century philosopher Herbert Spencer advocated the idea of ​​social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is to apply natural selection theory to social, political and economic problems. In its simplest form, social Darwinism follows the slogan of "strong survival" including human problems. Since this theory was used to promote the idea that the Caucasian European race is superior to other races, it is destined to rule them. When Spencer began to promote social Darwinism, the technology, economics and government of "White Europe" were improved compared to other cultures. Looking at this obvious advantage, as well as the economic and military structure, some people believe that natural selection is functioning, and races suitable for survival are better. We claim that social welfare programs that support poor people or disadvantaged people are contrary to nature itself and even extend this concept to microeconomic problems.

Social Darwinism is a social theory, and natural selection of Darwinian theory is used in human society. Social Darwinism is valued from Darwin's theory. However, social Darwinism is a belief that is prevalent in the late Victorian era in England, the USA and other areas. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the theory of social Darwinism and its influence on Australians. In this article I will briefly introduce it first. Next, we discuss the theory of social Darwinism. Later, it will explain the impact of social Darwinism on native Australians. Finally, this is the conclusion of the article.