Question

Explain Social Darwinism. Provide your answer in one paragraph.

Answer 1

Social Darwinism is a late 19th–early 20th century set of ideas that borrowed the biological notion of "survival of the fittest"—coined by Herbert Spencer, not Darwin—to argue that human societies, classes, races, and nations compete in a natural struggle in which the "fittest" prosper; proponents used this to justify laissez-faire capitalism, imperialism, racial hierarchies, opposition to welfare and labor protections, and later eugenics, claiming social inequalities were natural and beneficial. Although influential in politics and public opinion of the era, Social Darwinism is widely criticized and largely discredited by historians and scientists for misapplying evolutionary theory to complex social phenomena, ignoring social, economic and moral factors, and providing ideological cover for exploitation and discrimination; Charles Darwin himself did not advocate these social policies.