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"Social Darwinism" is most associated with the writings of Herbert Spencer, although researchers such as David Weinstein have argued that Spencer was not a "coarse Social Darwinist."[1] In Progress: Its Law and Cause ( 1857) Spencer wrote:
Spencer's work also served to renew interest in the work of Malthus, who is also cited as a Social Darwinist author. Malthus's 1798 work An Essay on the Principle of Population, for example, argued that as increasing population would normally outgrow its food supply, this would result in the starvation of the weakest. Some historians have suggested that the Malthusian catastrophe theory and similar concepts were used by the British to justify the continued export of agricultural produce from Ireland, even as the Irish were suffering from famine, in particular the Great FamineHistory of Ireland 1801-1922 The Irish Potato Famine also called The Great Famine or The Great Hunger ( Irish: An Gorta Mor , is the name given to a famine which struck Ireland between 1846 and 1849. The Famine was at least fifty years in the making, due of 1845Events January 29 The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time New York Evening Mirror . March 1 President John Tyler signs a bill authorizing the United States to annex the Republic of Texas. March 3 Florida is admitted as the 27th U.- 1849Events January 23 Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor January 31 Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom February 14 In New York City, James Knox Polk be.
Social Darwinism enjoyed widespread popularity in some European circles, particularly among ruling elites during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period the global recession of the 1870s encouraged a view of the world which saw societies or nations in competition with one another for survival in a hostile world. This attitude encouraged increasing militarization and the division of the world into colonial spheres of influence. The interpretation of social Darwinism of the time emphasized competition between species and races rather than cooperation. In the time since then, evolutionary theory has de-emphasized inter-species competition as well as the importance of violent confrontation in general, which discredits many of the social Darwinist theories of that time.
The 19971997 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of the Reef''. Events January January 3 NBC's Today Show Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time January 8 Mister Rogers receives a star on t book Guns, Germs and SteelGuns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 book by Jared Diamond, professor of physiology at UCLA. It won the Pulitzer Prize for 1998, as well as the Aventis Prize for best science book in the same year. According to the author, "An al by Jared DiamondDiamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American evolutionary biologist, physiologist, and biogeographer. As of June 2004, he is professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and was formerly professor of physiology at the UCLA Scho was seen by its author as continuing the debate over Social Darwinism. Diamond formulated a compelling argument that observed differences of technologicalTechnology ( Gr. tau;εχνολογια < τεχνη "craftsmanship" + λογος "word, reckoning" + the suffix ια) has more than one definition. and social development among populations resulted from environmentalAn environment is a complex of external factors that acts on a system and determines its course and form of existence. An environment may be thought of as a superset, of which the given system is a subset. An environment may have one or more parameters, p factors enhanced by the passage of time.
Because Social Darwinism came to be associated in the public mind with racism, imperialism, eugenics, and pseudoscience, such criticisms are sometimes applied (and misapplied) to any other political or scientific theory that resembles social Darwinism. Such criticisms are often levelled, for example, on evolutionary psychology, even though it makes no political or moral claims. Similarly, capitalism, especially laissez-faire capitalism, is sometimes equated with Social Darwinism because it adopts a "sink or swim" attitude toward economic activity. Supporters of capitalism respond that their goal is specifically to avoid ineffective economic behavior, and does not require or condone "letting the weak starve".