3/19 - Social Darwinism

In the wake of Darwin, general evolution gets applied to EVERYTHING, specifically the social world. When we think of Darwin, what we really think of is Darwinisms, not Darwin himself. The understanding of what Darwin means is locked into debates into the natire of people themselves and peoples organizations

• The term “evolution” isn’t even a word Darwin uses

  • put into human society

Herbert Spencer

• “survival of the fittest”

• anti-government; contrast between gilded age-capitalism and the rise of unionism

  • the government has no place interfering in society

    • libertarian position

      • individualism

        • the individual can make their own decisions free from constraints

      • no regulation

      • no government interference

      • essentially justifies slavery

      • goes against socialism

        • should be heavily regulated in a socialist system where the needs of the group outweigh the needs of the individual, or should individual freedom be prioritized

• robber barons vs drive for socialist organizations that advocate for stable working conditions, pay, no child-labor

Wilb Vs. Huxley

• Wilb - I don’t wanna be related to an ape

• Hux - I would rather be related to an ape than a religious nut like you

  • critique against organized religion

  • critique of the uniqueness of homo sapiens

    • are people unique?

Darwinism give you the ability to answer biological questions without organized religion.

• Warfare of Science and Religion - Andrew Dickson White

  • Huxley agrees that religion and science do not go along with each other

  • Others argue that Darwinism and religion can coexist

Interconnection/Co-Construction

Scientific communities/knowledge is shaped by, and shapes, social , political, economic knowledge

• science co-constructs economics and vice versa

  • Co-construction - shaped by, and shapes

• EVERYTHING’S CONNECTED

  • because Darwinism is systemically governmental, fascism occurs when embraced

German fascism embraces many of the ugly parts of social Darwinism

• Rasenhygiene (Racial Hygiene)- German word for eugenics

  • more active process of “sanitizing” the race through exclusion so then the other race is eliminated from the gene pool entirely

  • ends in genocide

  • the harsher the conditions, you’ll end up with only the “fittest” of survival

    • ends up with the ‘fittest” of the jews…can’t have that…enter the Holocaust

    • social Darwinism caused the Holocaust essentially

• if they haven’t dont the Final Solution, and waist their resources, could they have won against the Soviets?

  • the American argument is that they lost huge amount of talent, as the Jews that fled formed the heart of the American technology in the war. like the atomic bomb

    • if they used their talents, they could have mase substantial progress, but instead they’re forced into it by the created social system

  • Eugenics in each different location is very different bc American eugenics was more about heredity (American Breeders LMAOOOO), German is racial, Australia is environmental

    • in the early 1900s, practically everyone had eugenics

All scientific knowledge and the way its practices is shaped in its social context. They get themselves into this position.