Transcript SOCIAL DARWINISM

 Middle class in English family
 Deep interest in science
 Influenced by his grandfather
Erasmus Darwin
 Entered Cambridge University
 Becomes clergyman
 The most momentous
development in Darwin’s
life.
 Left London in 1831
 Galapagos Island
 Clergy natural scientist
 Wrote long statement about his
theory
 Published On the Origin of
Species
 Became famous
 A belief which states that the strongest or fittest
should survive and flourish in society, while the weak
and unfit should be allowed to extinct.
 The theory was chiefly expounded by Herbert Spencer,
whose ethical philosophies always held an elitist view
and received a boost from the application of
Darwinian ideas such as adaptation and natural
selection.
Herbert Spenser (1820-1903)
 Relied on theories of evolution
to explain differences between
the strong and the weak
“Survival of the Fittest”
“Natural Selection”
BUSINESS
 The strongest businesses will survive, the weak will be
come extinct.
 The more financially successful people are the strong
ones and will survive
 Poor deserve to be poor because they are unfit to be
wealthy
Darwin-“Biological superiority”
• European white race represented a major advance over
other “races”.
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
• Races of successful individuals had competed better in
the natural world evolved to higher states than the less
fit people.
Joseph Gobineau (1816-1882)
•Claimed that race is the most important “index of human potential.”
•Africans: intelligent and lazy
•Asians: smart but docile
•The Native Americas: dull and arrogant
•EUROPEANS: INTELLIGENT, NOBLE and MORALLY SUPERIOR TO OTHERS.
Racist Thinkers: identify
racial groups based on
skin color, bone
structure, nose shape,
cranial capacity and
other physical
characteristics.
Emphasizing superiority
of Europeans
Race theorists reflected
the European imperial
dominance in the world.
Targets
In Europe: Jews
In the United States: Black
people
In Sweden: misfits, deviants,
gypsies and others.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL-DARWINISM OF MODERN SOCIETY
The Nazi Holocaust- Superiority of Aryan race.
•Killed over 5 million Jews
•Massacred at least 375,000 “inadequate” people.
U.S developed sense of superiority over Filipinos.
•Constant torture
•Using degrading words to refer to the enemies
•President McKinley attempt to “civilize” and
“Christianize” the Filipinos.
Japan-the Superiors in Asia.
•Japanese were more related to the “Aryans” by blood.
•Superior to the “Mongolians”-mostly populated in
China and Korea.
•Victory in the Russo-Japanese War An “Obligation”
to help civilize their neighbor countries.