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Definition:
Social Darwinism is based upon the idea that Darwin's insights into how species evolve
can also be applied to explain how social groups develop and change over time.
According to this doctrine, communities, races, tribes, etc. all evolve based upon the
principle of the "survival of the fittest" - the best ones will survive and flourish,
while the worst will simply die out.
As a purely descriptive position, there is little wrong with it - the better social groups are more likely to survive. However, many in history have attempted to transform this description into a prescriptive norm and a basis for social legislation. Thus, authorities get involved with deciding which groups are "really" better and helping them to survive better than other groups. Or authorities create harsher social conditions in which groups are encouraged to compete against each other instead of cooperating for the benefit of all.
Also Known As: none
Alternate Spellings: none
Common Misspellings: none
Related Resources:
What is the Philosophy of Science?
The Philosophy of Science is concerned with, obviously enough, science - specifically, how science operates, what the goals of science should be, what relationship science should have with the rest of society, the differences between science and other activities, etc. Everything that happens in science has some relationship with the Philosophy of Science and is predicated upon some philosophical position, even though that may be rarely evident.What is Philosophy?
What is philosophy? Is there any point in studying philosophy, or is it a useless subject? What are the different branches of philosophy - what's the difference between aestheitcs and ethics? What's the difference between metaphysics and epistemology?
