social Darwinism
Survival-of-fittest ideology
Social Darwinism applies Darwin's concept of natural selection to human societies, arguing that competition weeds out the weak and rewards the fit.
The theory was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to justify laissez-faire capitalism, imperialism, and racial hierarchies—the poor deserved poverty, the rich deserved wealth, and dominant nations deserved to dominate.
Social Darwinism provided intellectual cover for refusing aid to the poor.
The term is now almost always pejorative, applied to views the speaker finds callous or scientifically illegitimate.
Differential reproductive success
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
- fitnessGood physical shape
- inheritanceProperty received from ancestors
genetics · selection pressure · reproductive success · variation · species · population · Darwin · heredity
Adaptive advantage perpetuates species
- laissez-faireNoninterference in commerce
- eugenicsControlled human reproduction theory
- scientific racismPseudoscience justifying ethnic hierarchy
- racial hierarchyRanking groups by ancestry
natural order · meritocracy · individualism · free market · capitalism · imperialism · colonialism · white supremacy
Unjust differential treatment
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- ableismBias against disabled individuals
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
- nativismPreference for native-born citizens
genocide · forced sterilization · immigration restriction · inequality · injustice · victim blaming · callousness · neglect
Competition for limited resources
- rivalryOngoing contest between opponents
- warfareArmed conflict between groups
- conflictOpposition between parties
- dominanceSuperior influence over others
elimination · conquest · exploitation · oppression · victory · defeat · adversary · winner
Unequal distribution by status
- elitismPreference for privileged rule
- plutocracyRule by the rich
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
- casteInherited social division
privilege · supremacy · subordination · underclass · ruling class · poverty · wealth concentration · oligarchy
natural selection
Differential reproductive success
- evolutionSpecies changing over generations
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
- fitnessGood physical shape
inheritance · genetics · selection pressure · reproductive success · variation · species · population · Darwin · heredity · breeding
survival of the fittest
Adaptive advantage perpetuates species
- laissez-faireNoninterference in commerce
- eugenicsControlled human reproduction theory
- scientific racismPseudoscience justifying ethnic hierarchy
racial hierarchy · natural order · meritocracy · individualism · free market · capitalism · imperialism · colonialism · white supremacy · pseudoscience
discrimination
Unjust differential treatment
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- ableismBias against disabled individuals
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
nativism · genocide · forced sterilization · immigration restriction · inequality · injustice · victim blaming · callousness · neglect · debunked
struggle for existence
Competition for limited resources
- rivalryOngoing contest between opponents
- warfareArmed conflict between groups
- conflictOpposition between parties
dominance · elimination · conquest · exploitation · oppression · victory · defeat · adversary · winner · loser
class inequality
Unequal distribution by status
- elitismPreference for privileged rule
- plutocracyRule by the rich
- aristocracyRule by hereditary elite
caste · privilege · supremacy · subordination · underclass · ruling class · poverty · wealth concentration · oligarchy · power structure
- anthropologyanthropology, fieldwork, ethnography, cultural anthropology, paleoanthropology
- sociologysocialization, stratification, norms, class, habitus
- -ismsatomism, postmodernism, feminism, Marxism, realism
- Gilded AgeGilded Age, robber baron, robber barons, Carnegie, Rockefeller
- Victorian IdeasVictorianism, evolution, natural selection, utilitarianism, positivism
- Herbert Spencersurvival of the fittest
social Darwinismegalitarianism
Philosophy of universal equality
mutual aid · socialism · communitarianism · welfare state · collectivism
social Darwinismsocial safety net
Public programs preventing destitution
charity · welfare · noblesse oblige · altruism · philanthropy
social, society, sociable, antisocial, societies, socially, unsocial, sociability, societal