Social Darwinism is the belief that people in society compete for survival and that superior individuals, social groups, and races become powerful and wealthy. Social Darwinism applies Charles R. Darwin’s theories on evolution to the development of society.
Darwin, a British naturalist, published his theories in 1859 in the book The Origin of Species (see Evolution (Darwin’s theory) ). He believed all plants and animals had evolved (developed naturally) from a few common ancestors. He proposed that evolution occurred through a process called natural selection. In this process, the organisms best suited to their environment are the ones most likely to survive and produce organisms like themselves.
Social Darwinism applies the idea of natural selection to society, attempting to explain differences in achievement and wealth among people. According to the theory, individuals or groups must compete with one another to survive. The principles of natural selection favor the survival of the fittest members of society. Such individuals or groups adapt successfully to the social environment, while those that are unfit fail to do so.
Social Darwinists assert that those best able to survive demonstrate their fitness by accumulating property, wealth, and social status. Poverty, according to the theory, proves an individual’s or group’s unfitness. Powerful individuals or groups may also use the theory to justify their domination over other peoples or groups.
Many social scientists have criticized social Darwinism because it fails to consider that some people inherit power and influence merely by being born into wealthy families. These individuals or groups, critics claim, owe their good fortune more to their higher social position than to any natural superiority.
Social Darwinism developed as an important social theory during the late 1800’s. Herbert Spencer, a British philosopher, first proposed the theory. William Graham Sumner, an American sociologist, helped make social Darwinism popular in the United States. The theory had lost much of its influence by the early 1900’s. However, there are some social scientists who still study it.
See also Spencer, Herbert ; Sumner, William Graham .
