Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism Most of you have heard on Charles Darwin. He's the british scientist that is best remembered for playing with turtles on the Galapagos Islands, and coining the phrase survival of the fittest. What you probably don't know is he came up with one of the most influencial theories on economics and human nature in the late 1800's, Social Darwinism. Social Darwinism is a term gave to describe the idea that humans, like animals …

…of aggression, territoriality, mate selection, and other behaviors common in people and in animals, which revived the social Darwinist arguement that intelligence is mostly determined by biology rather then enviromental influences. Many social Darwinism critics claim that it downplays the role of culture in human societies and justifies poverty and warfare in the name of natural selection. Such criticism has led to the decline in the influence of sociobiology and other forms of social Darwinism.