herbert spencer came up with the theory of social darwinism.
herbert spencer came up with the theory of social darwinism.
who came up with the theory of social darwinism?
herbert spencer
despite the fact that social darwinism bears charles darwin's name, it is also linked today with others, notably herbert spencer, thomas malthus, and francis galton, the founder of eugenics. in fact, spencer was not described as a social darwinist until the 1930s, long after his death. the social darwinism term first appeared in europe in 1880, and journalist emilie gautier had coined the term with reference to a health conference in berlin 1877. around 1900 it was used by sociologists, some being opposed to the concept. the term was popularized in the united states in 1944 by the american historian richard hofstadter who used it in the ideological war effort against fascism to denote a reactionary creed which promoted competitive strife, racism and chauvinism. hofstadter later also recognized (what he saw as) the influence of darwinist and other evolutionary ideas upon those with collectivist views, enough to devise a term for the phenomenon, "darwinist collectivism". before hofstadter's work the use of the term "social darwinism" in english academic journals was quite rare. in fact,
social darwinism
as a scientific concept, social darwinism broadly declined in popularity following world war i and was largely discredited by the end of world war ii, partially due to its association with nazism and partially due to a growing scientific consensus that it was scientifically groundless. later theories that were categorised as social darwinism were generally described as such as a critique by their opponents; their proponents did not identify themselves by such a label. creationists have often maintained that social darwinism—leading to policies designed to reward the most competitive—is a logical consequence of "darwinism" (the theory of natural selection in biology). biologists and historians have stated that this is a fallacy of appeal to nature, since the theory of natural selection is merely intended as a description of a biological phenomenon and should not be taken to imply that this phenomenon is "good" or that it ought to be used as a moral guide in human society. while most scholars recognize some historical links between the popularisation of darwin's theory and forms of social darwinism, they also maintain that social darwinism is not a necessary consequence of the principles of biological evolution.
social darwinism