Social Darwinism

We explain what social Darwinism is and what its origin is. Also, the history of this set of theories and the theoretical problems it raises.

What is social Darwinism?

Social Darwinism is the name by which a series of sociological, economic and political ideas of a biological and evolutionary type. These affirm that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution has social applications. Because of this claim, social Darwinism is considered a form of biological reductionism.

Social Darwinism maintains that abundance and economic wealth correspond to the strongest due to their good biological adaptationwhile those who are weak in biological terms see their power and wealth decrease naturally. This represents a justification of the aggressiveness of liberal society, as well as a pseudoscientific attempt to explain economic and social class differences.

This current of sociological thought began with the philosophy of Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), English naturalist, sociologist, philosopher and anthropologist. Spencer is considered the father of social Darwinism and he was the first theorist who sought the bases of morality in biological evolution, extrapolating Darwin's evolutionary theory to the field of sociology.

Both Spencer's work and other forms of social Darwinism have been received controversially. Although strongly received in its origins, due to its assimilation to fascism, Social Darwinism has been largely rejected by the majority of intellectuals of the first part of the European 20th century. Authors such as Gyorgy Lukács (1885-1971) have connected Social Darwinism with the racism that preceded it and subsequent fascism.

Origin of the term “social Darwinism”

The origin of the term “social Darwinism” is controversial. Although it is true that its main theorist was Spencer, many authors of the time developed ideas similar to Spencermainly thanks to the context in which they wrote. Some of them were Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) and Francis Galton (1822-1911).

Social Darwinism takes its name from Darwin's theory. Indeed, the set of theories receives its name from its tendency to extrapolate Darwinian evolutionary and natural selection theories to the study of society by sociologists and economists.

The use of the term “Darwinism” comes from the article published by Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895) in his 1861 commentary on The origin of speciesby Charles Darwin. The phrase “social Darwinism” first appeared in Joseph Fisher's 1877 article titled The history of land ownership in Ireland. However, it was not until 1944 that the term became popular in the United States thanks to the American historian Richard Hofstadter (1916-1970).

History of social Darwinism

Social Darwinism has its origins in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. Darwin's ideas marked the definitive abandonment of the theories of fixism (the conception of the world as a fixed and immutable reality since its creation) and gave way to the idea of ​​natural selection and evolution of species.

Herbert Spencer, however, maintained that the idea arose from his own work and was not an extrapolation of Darwin's work.. This is true to the extent that Spencer's work was influenced by the works of Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) and the theory of Lamarckism. Lamarckism is the term used to refer to the theory of evolution developed by the Count of Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste Pierre de Monet (1744-1829).

Most of those who adhere to Social Darwinism do not use the term to refer to their ideas. This is because, in itself, there are numerous definitions in this regard, many of which are even incompatible with each other. He Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics argues that part of the difficulty in establishing appropriate and common use is that commitment to the biology of natural selection and survival of the fittest does not imply a political commitment. So, a social darwinist could be a socialist, an imperialist, or a domestic eugenicist.

On the other hand, the term “Darwinism” includes a series of evolutionary points of view whose meaning was displaced by Spencer towards the “survival of the fittest.” Most of these ideas, generally referred to when talking about “social Darwinism”, have their origin in works prior to Darwin's work, so a direct connection linked to the use of the term should not be understood.

The theoretical problem of social Darwinism

Social Darwinism contains, theoretically, some contradictory points that are related to two central aspects of Darwin's theory. The first refers to survival by natural selection. The second, subsumed in the first, refers to the “competition” behavior of individuals of the same species to find food, escape from predators or generate offspring. This is what is known as “survival of the fittest.” However, it was not Darwin but Spencer who coined the term “survival of the fittest” in his book Principles of Biology (1864).

• equivalence fallacy. The first contradictory point is linked to the statement that the survival of the human species by natural selection is equivalent to the survival of other animal species. This is wrong: the only current human species is the dominant one in the scale of predation over the rest of the living species on the planet. There is no fight to maintain the species against other species of animals. Appealing to this argument is a fallacy of equivalence.
• naturalistic logical fallacy. Human societies are governed by their own laws and, on the contrary, animals are governed by natural laws, determined by instinct. Prescribing the natural world to the social world means that “being” something implies an “ought to be something.” Thus, from a description – be –, a prescription – duty – would be derived. This is a naturalistic logical fallacy.

References

• Vicen, FG (1984). Social Darwinism: Spectrum of an ideology. Yearbook of Philosophy of Law, (1), 163-176.
• Espina, Á. (2005). Presentation: Social Darwinism: from Spencer to Bagehot. Reis, (110), 175-187.
• Calvo, BB (2012). Economic liberalism and social Darwinism. About the figure of Herbert Spencer. Astrolabe: international journal of philosophy, 47-54.
• Pérez, JLM (2009). The ideology of “social Darwinism”: the social policy of Herbert Spencer (I). Labor Documentation, (87), 11-80.