Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Darwin’s theorising
- Part II Historical contexts
- 6 Is the theory of natural selection independent of its history?
- 7 Darwin’s science and Victorian philosophy of science
- 8 Darwin and Victorian Christianity
- 9 Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics
- 10 The place of Darwin’s theories in the intellectual long run
- Part III Current issues
- Part IV Philosphical prospects
- Guide to further reading
- List of references
- Index
9 - Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics
from Part II - Historical contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2009
- Frontmatter
- Introduction
- Part I Darwin’s theorising
- Part II Historical contexts
- 6 Is the theory of natural selection independent of its history?
- 7 Darwin’s science and Victorian philosophy of science
- 8 Darwin and Victorian Christianity
- 9 Darwin, social Darwinism and eugenics
- 10 The place of Darwin’s theories in the intellectual long run
- Part III Current issues
- Part IV Philosphical prospects
- Guide to further reading
- List of references
- Index
Summary
How does Darwin's Darwinism relate to social Darwinism and eugenics? Like many foes of Darwinism, past and present, the American populist and creationist William Jennings Bryan thought a straight line ran from Darwin's theory ('a dogma of darkness and death') to beliefs that it is right for the strong to crowd out the weak, and that the only hope for human improvement lay in selective breeding. Darwin's defenders, on the other hand, have typically viewed social Darwinism and eugenics as perversions of his theory. Daniel Dennett speaks for many biologists and philosophers of science when he characterises social Darwinism as 'an odious misapplication of Darwinian thinking'. That perspective is also reflected in the 2005-6 blockbuster Darwin show curated by the American Museum of Natural History, where the section on 'Social Darwinism', subtitled 'Misusing Darwin's Theory', claims that all uses of Darwin's theory to justify particular social, political, or economic principles 'have one fundamental flaw: they use a purely scientific theory for a completely unscientific purpose. In doing so they misrepresent and misappropriate Darwin's original ideas'. Few professional historians believe either that Darwin's theory leads directly to these doctrines or that they are entirely unrelated. But both the nature and significance of the link are passionately disputed.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to Darwin , pp. 219 - 245Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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