Social Darwinism gains growing acceptance (1 gen 1870 anni – 1 gen 1880 anni)

Descrizione:

Definition: An idea, actually formulated not by Charles Darwin but by British philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer, that human society advanced through ruthless competition and the “survival of the fittest.”


Others were less scrupulous about drawing sweeping conclusions from Darwin’s work. In the 1870s, British philosopher Herbert Spencer spun out an elaborate theory of how human society advanced through ruthless competitive struggle, resulting in “survival of the fittest.” Spencer applied this particularly to capitalism and industry.

The doctrine of Social Darwinism, as Spencer’s idea became (confusingly) known, found its American champion in William Graham Sumner, a sociology professor at Yale. Competition, said Sumner, was a law of nature, like gravity. Who were the fittest? “Millionaires,” Sumner declared. Their success showed they were “naturally selected.” Sumner’s views bolstered the pride and self-justification of industrial titans such as Andrew Carnegie, who loved Spencer’s works and invited him to tour Pittsburgh. (Spencer was not impressed.) “The concentration of capital is necessary for meeting the demands of our day,” was the message Carnegie took from Spencer. Similarly, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil declared that “the growth of a large business is merely a survival of the fittest. This is not an evil tendency of business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.”

Even in the heyday of Social Darwinism, such views were controversial. Many thinkers objected to the application of biological findings to the realm of economics and society. Sociologist Lester Frank Ward argued that humanity “progresses through the protection of the weak,” not through ruthless competition. “Man,” he wrote, “through his intelligence, has labored successfully to resist the law of nature.” Ward suggested, tongue in cheek, that if Americans subscribed to a doctrine of “survival of the fittest,” they should abolish police and fire departments, irrigation works, and flood control. Social Darwinism, such critics argued, was simply an excuse for the worst excesses of industrialization. By the early twentieth century, intellectuals turned against Sumner and his allies (see “Firsthand Accounts”).

Aggiunto al nastro di tempo:

Data: