What is social Darwinism?

Society, like individuals, should be regarded as an organism that has evolved in this way. This theory is used to support laissez-faire capitalism and political conservatism: the poor are "misfits" in the competition for survival and should not be helped; In the competition for survival, the amount of wealth is the standard of success. In dealing with society, social Darwinism has become the philosophical basis of imperialist and racist policies, supporting the view that Anglo-Saxons or Aryans are superior in culture and physiology. Social Darwinism declined in the 20th century, because the fields of biological knowledge and cultural phenomenon knowledge were constantly expanding, which was enough to refute but not support its basic tenets.

Social Darwinism originates from Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin's theory of evolution holds that with the change of environment, life forms on the earth will gradually evolve from low-level life forms to high-level life forms, which is an inevitable trend.

After Darwin's theory of evolution came out, Spencer put forward "social Darwinism", arguing that society can be compared with biological organisms, and the relationship between society and its members is just like the relationship between biological individuals and their cells. Social Darwinism itself is not a political tendency, but a social model. According to the phenomenon of "food chain" in nature, the viewpoint of "the law of the jungle, natural selection, survival of the fittest" is put forward to explain social phenomena.

Social Darwinism is a social theory that applies the idea of natural selection in Darwin's theory of evolution to human society. This idea was first put forward by Herbert, a British philosopher and writer. Spencer. The popularity of social Darwinism lasted from19th century to the end of World War II. Some people think that modern sociobiology can also be classified as social Darwinism. The word "social Darwinism" first appeared in the first edition of American historian Richard hofstadter's book "Social Darwinism and American Thinking" 1944. Therefore, it is not accurate to use the word "social Darwinism" to refer to the relevant ideological trends before 1944, but this usage has been widely adopted by historians.

Core concept

Social Darwinism refers to an idea. According to this idea, Darwinism, especially its core concept-natural elimination caused by survival competition, is also a common phenomenon in human society. People think it plays an important role in the evolution and development of human beings. This idea is often used to emphasize the rationality of ethnic differences and class existence, as well as the inevitability of war. In addition, the theory and thought of applying evolution to society is usually called social evolution. It is related to the theory of social organism. The actual founder of the theory of social organism is H.Spencer. Some people say that after the establishment of Darwin's theory of evolution, Spencer's influence on social thought was more significant than Darwin's. This is the case in the United States and Japan. Although Spencer sided with Lamarck. But in the institute,

When will it evolve? It thinks that social Darwinism is more appropriate.