Social Darwinism was one of the most powerful movements in the nineteenth century Germany, believes professor Jerry Bergman. As the movement escalated, Jews became non-human to the Germans. That was one of the reasons the Nazis did not feel any remorse at the time, because they had deprived the Jews of every piece of humanity that they obtained. Social Darwinism was first brought up by British philosopher and sociologist, Herbert Spencer. Social Darwinism goes back to the earliest form, which is Darwinism. Because social Darwinism and Darwinism have similar name, people think they are the same concept, but they are two completely different theories. Social Darwinism was a way to classify the “fit” from the “unfit.” Darwinism, on the other hand, was the way species evolve through time to become more adapt to their environment. Through history, social Darwinism has appeared repeatedly. For example social Darwinism was used in the progressive and imperialism era. Social Darwinism in the holocaust differs from social Darwinism in the Progressive era or the imperialism era, by the ways that people reacted to the situations. Social Darwinism in the holocaust gave scientific justification to the actions of the Nazis (Bergman). Spencer’s theory of social Darwinism, encouraged and pushed the Nazis on subjects such as: stereotyping that led to the Jews to be acknowledged as a race, eugenics, racial supremacy, and the superior race taking out the weaker races. Social Darwinism brings about much confusion when comparing it to the original Darwinism. Social Darwinism is the idea that one type of race is better than another type. The theory “survival of the fittest” best represents this idea. “Survival of the fittest” refers to the weaker ra... ... middle of paper ... ... 2011. “Holocaust Encyclopedia.” Untied Sates Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ns. 6 Jan 2011. Web. 14 March 2011. “laissez-faire.” Mariam-Webster Dictionary. Google. Nud. web. 29 March 2011. McConnell, Tandy. “Anti-Semitism: Did the Holocaust have it’s Origins in the Social Darwinism of the Nineteenth Century?” History in Dispute. Vol. 11: The Holocaust, 1933-1945. Detroit: St. James Press, 2003. 17-26. Global Issues IN Context. Web. 28 March 2011. Lennox, James. “Darwinism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics. Nelson, Joe. “Origins OF the Holocaust.” Signature School, Evansville. 12 April 2011. Lecture. Research Lab. 19 January 2010. Web. 30 March 2010. Ruse, Michael. The Evolution- Creation Struggle. London: Harvard University Press, 2005. Print. 28 March 2011. "Social Darwinism." Ohio History Central. Ns. July 1, 2005. Web. 29 March 2011
The American Eugenics Movement was led by Charles Davenport and was a social agenda to breed out undesirable traits with an aim of racial purification. Eugenics was a used to breed out the worst and weakest to improve the genetic composition of the human race, and advocated for selective breeding to achieve this. The science of eugenics rested on simple mendelian genetics, which was a mistake because they were assuming complex behaviors could be reduced to simple mendelian genes. After Nazi Germany adopted the ideas behind the American eugenics movement to promote the Aryan race, the eugenics movement was completely discredited.
Did you know that even though Hitler had brown hair and blue eyes, his idea of a superior race was those with blond hair and blue eyes? He wanted this group of people to be superior to all other races because they represented a clean view of Germany. Hitler used his power to achieve this goal by enforcing many rules and creating many different projects. He wanted the people of Germany to believe that they were superior to all other races and they must do everything to maintain the standards of living in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler and his Nazis created the perfect race by influencing the education of children and creating bride schools, the Hitler Youth Program, and Lebensborn birthing homes.
Darwin’s theory was known and used by Adolf Hitler. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. These three minds are responsible for carrying out the deadliest falsified scientific theory in the history of the world. Eugenics is the science of improving a population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics (Oxford Dictionary). This notion can be traced to old world cultures such as the Egyptians, but was popularized in the 19th century by Charles Darwin.
The origins of eugenic ideology can be traced to the mid-nineteenth century when English philosopher, Herbert Spencer coined the term "survival of the fittest." Those strong and "fittest" would naturally rise to the top, for the benefit of society. Spencer, along with other leading scientists like Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel advocated the principles of the improvement of the human race based on this superiority logic; supporting their findings through the combined applications of science and mathematics. In 1865, statistician Francis J. Galton "postulated that heredity not only transmitted physical features, such as hair color and height, but mental, emotional and creative qualities as well," and so new theories were born. (Page: 15). These characteristics were more than coincidental and Galton set about classifying and categorizing thousands of people based upon his hypothesis that negative hereditary existed, and that bad traits would out weigh the good and as a result, people would spiral biologically downward. Thus the term "eugenics" was utilized as "the study of all agencies under social control which can improve or impair the racial quality of future generations." (Page: 18).
Herbert Spencer was the most important Social Darwinist of the 19th Century. He was the first to begin thinking about evolutionist long before Darwin came out with his book on the "Origins of Species". He had many theories such as that everything evolves from one basic creature and then breaks off into more diverse species (Haberman (Hab.), 171). His theory was that social, political, and intellectual movements were caused by the development from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.
In order to comprehend the present state of these two forces, it is necessary to analyze more completely the meanings of Social Darwinism and Social Welfare. Every since Charles Darwin published the Origin of the Species in 1859, social scientists have attempted to explain human behavior as a product of natural selection. In the 19th century, Social Darwinism held that history was about the "survival of the fittest" and "superior" social groups were evolutionary more fit to rule the world. Social Darwinism was at the heart of many pernicious theories of the past century, including scientific racism and eugenics (Goldfield, et al, 1998, p. 721).
Darwin has two theories on the key principles of theory of evolution. One is the natural selection, a species that attains characteristics that are adapted to their environments (Darwin, Charles). The other one is survival of the fittest, which is when an individual best adapts to their environment survive to reproduce, and their genes are passed to later generat...
At the beginning of the 1800s, scientists knew of some kinds of fossils, and were very aware of homologous and vestigial structures. Many scientists suspected that some kind of evolution had given rise to living things around them. However, they had no theory to explain how evolution might have occurred. Two scientists led the way in the search for a mechanism of evolution. The first was Jean Lamarck. The second was one of the greatest figures in biology, Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin, believe it or not played a huge role in the development of the holocaust. He played a role in the beliefs of the Nazi party. His theories is what they based their laws off of, they gave the Nazi's their thoughts of political beliefs. This leading to the Nazi's replacing the Judeo-christian Doctrine with Darwinism. Darwin's theories had a huge impact on how the jews were treated and how war was seen. Darwin would soon have everyone following his idea of evolution. Charles Darwin would soon get the Nazi's to try and eliminate the weaker race based off his theory ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and a ‘Superior race’. Nazism is believed to have reached the extent of the holocaust due to wide spread and acceptance of social darwinism. The scientific and academic community would soon fall for the belief in Darwinism and be strong supports of the theories (Influence of Evolution).
The Nazi’s perpetrated many horrors during the Holocaust. They enacted many cruel laws. They brainwashed millions into foolishly following them and believing their every word using deceitful propaganda tactics. They forced many to suffer doing embarrassing jobs and to live in crowded ghettos. They created mobile killing squads to exterminate their enemies. Finally, as part of “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, they made concentration and killing camps. Another thing the Nazi’s did was to use eugenics as another mean to micromanage the population. What is eugenics, you might ask? It’s the field of scientific study or the belief in genetically improving qualities, attributes and traits in the human race and/or improving the species as a whole—usually done by controlled/selective breeding. Those with positive, desirable, and superior traits are encouraged to reproduce and may be given monetary incentives by the government to have large families. Those with negative, undesirable, or inferior traits may be discouraged from having offspring. They may be sterilized, or undergo dangerous medical procedures or operations with high mortality rates. I chose this topic because it appealed to me and seemed interesting. In the following paragraphs, the tactics, methods, and propaganda the Nazi’s used will be exposed.
...ptation and the emergence of new species were linked. If two groups of individuals from the same species were separated, finches for example, and placed in different environments, then after many generations, the two groups will have accumulated differences making it possible to differentiate two distinct species. The Galapagos finches can be differentiated by the size of their beak, which is adapted to the food available on the islands. Darwin had an intuition of the importance of these mechanisms to explain evolution.
Social Darwinism is a late 19th century term used to describe the application of British naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to social and political conditions. Late 19th century sociologist Herbert Spencer tried to capture the essence of social Darwinism with his phrase “survival of the fittest”. This essentially meant that the strong would rise to the top while the weak simply died out. Social Darwinists eschew social responsibility and compassion, instead believing that some people are more fit to survive than others. Many social Darwinists advocated that the government should maintain a laissez-faire, or hands off, approach when it came to regulating economic competition and alleviating social inequalities. Social Darwinism was used to justify the consolidation of the majority of wealth by a minority of Americans. The term allowed people to rationalize capitalism, imperialism, racism, and even eugenics. The wealthy believed in social Darwinism because it allowed them to justify their oppressive business tactics and low wages for their labor force. Politicians believed in it because it allowed them to justify imperialism, or expansion of the nation. Affluent Anglo-Saxons believed in social Darwinism, believing themselves to be the superior race, and used it to justify ...
Social Darwinism is the theory of evolution that only the most fit will survive, and the weaker will die off. Frank Norris wrote McTeague with the theories of Social Darwinism. His characters demonstrated Norris’ views on urban society, that only the “fittest” with survive. Norris shows that humans born into a lower social class will not be able to advance classes, and those of lower class will inevitably die off, leaving only the survival of the fittest. Norris illustrates Social Darwinism by McTeague and Trina’s life deteriorating as the attempt to advance social class; and the immigrants,Zerkow and Maria, failure at procreating.
The concept of Social Darwinism was a widely accepted theory in the nineteenth-century. Various intellectual, and political figures from each side of the political spectrum grasped the theory and interpreted it in various ways. In this paper, we will discuss three different nineteenth-century thinkers and their conception of Social Darwinism. The conservative, Heinrich von Treitschke, and liberal Herbert Spencer both gave arguments on the usefulness of competition between people on a global scale. The anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, refuted the belief of constant competition among members of the same species and emphasized mutual aid.
The belief of eugenics was well-known in the 20th century and the set of its ideals were adopted by many societies across the nation. Eugenics is a study of improving human species by keeping all of the desirable races or breeds. It developed a controversial science regarding to human heredity and personal traits such as positive and negative eugenics. For example, it stated that in order to improve the genetic quality of human race, the society should encourage individuals with superior genes to produce more offspring and discourage reproduction who are considered as socially unfit. These biased eugenics ideas were inspired by Darwin’s theory of natural selection and as well as Galton’s theory of hard heredity. Even in today’s society, people