Dec 15, · Herbert Spencer (–) is typically, though quite wrongly, considered a coarse social Darwinist. After all, Spencer, and not Darwin, coined the infamous expression “survival of the fittest”, leading G. E. Moore to conclude erroneously in Principia Ethica () that Spencer committed the naturalistic fallacy. According to Moore, Spencer’s practical reasoning was deeply flawed While Malthus's work does not itself qualify as social Darwinism, his work An Essay on the Principle of Population, was incredibly popular and widely read by social Darwinists. In that book, for example, the author argued that as an increasing population would normally outgrow its food supply, this would result in the starvation of the Nov 04, · “Social Problems” is the title of an undergraduate course taught at many colleges; a typical course discusses what is known about a series of conditions considered social problems. In contrast, the sociology of social problems defines social problem differently and adopts a different analytic approach
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by Peter Dobkin Social darwinism essay, School of Public Affair, Baruch College, City University of New York. Under the circumstances, this is not surprising. The world was in the midst of vast and frightening changes — industrialization, urbanization, immigration, class war, and mass poverty — which no one understood and to which no one could offer solutions, social darwinism essay. Extrapolations from Darwinism, with its emphasis on evolutionary progress, offered reason for hope that a new and better social order could emerge from the turbulence.
At the same time, by highlighting competition and the survival of the fittest as the drivers of evolution, it seemed to explain both the emergence of the fittest — fabulously wealthy elites and giant corporations, as well as the unfit — the masses of poor in the teeming city slums. Social Darwinism, as it came to be known, served the purposes of both liberals and conservatives. Because conservatives believed that many of the traits associated with unfitness — propensities for idleness, criminality, sexual misbehavior, and alcoholism — were passed along social darwinism essay generation to generation by heredity, much like hair and eye color, they grimly predicted the growth of a permanent criminal underclass unless steps were taken to prevent it, social darwinism essay.
They were particularly concerned with the social darwinism essay of sentimental and impulsive charity on the poor. The streets of New York became thronged with this ragged, needy crowd; they filled all the station-houses and lodging places provided by private charity, and overflowed into the island almshouses.
Street-begging, to the point of importunity, became a custom. Ladies were robbed, even on their own doorsteps, by these mendicants. Petty offenses, such as thieving and drunkenness, increased. One of the free lodgings in the upper part of the city, established by the Commissioners of Charities, became a public nuisance from its rowdyism and criminality Pauperism Poor relief, conservatives believed, social darwinism essay, destroyed the work ethic that motivated the poor to work. They are, social darwinism essay, in fact, an especial assistance to the idle, and a reward to the improvident Pauperism Preventing the growth of this criminal class called for strict measures, beginning with a thorough and discriminating supervision of all charities, public and private; the most careful attention to the education and employment of the poor and their children; the placing of pauper children in good families, social darwinism essay, at a distance, if possible, form degrading associations; a rigid and exact system of in-door relief, accompanied with labor; the reduction of out-door relief in cities, and the encouragement of emigration to rural districts from the crowded centres of poverty and crime, social darwinism essay, which most of our largest cities have now become.
The position of New York in this respect is exceptional, because it yearly receives a quarter of a million immigrants from foreign countries, and this exposes it to peculiar evils and dangers.
While this should be borne in mind, it should not be made an apology for neglect nor an occasion for abuses, but should lead to increased vigilance and activity on the part of magistrates and citizens These practices were enacted into law by many states and were upheld by the U. Bell Although liberals also drew on Darwinism, social darwinism essay, they did so in a very different spirit. They believed that education, good nutrition, and healthy living conditions could eliminate poverty and criminality.
It were better for mankind that the millions of the rich were thrown into the sea than so spent as to encourage the slothful, the drunken, the unworthy. Of every thousand dollars spent in so called charity to day, it is probable that nine hundred and fifty dollars is unwisely spent — so spent, indeed, as to produce the very evils which it hopes to mitigate or cure.
Carnegie believed that the inequality that inevitably resulted from industrial capitalism was not inherently bad. Competition in society, as in the natural world, sorted people out according to their abilities. But this inequality did not preclude everyone, from millionaire to industrial worker, from playing a useful part in the collective task of human progress, social darwinism essay. In the last decades of the nineteenth century, as charities reformers and philanthropists began to systematically study the poor and the causes of poverty, a more discerning social darwinism essay on these issues began to emerge which drew on both the liberal and conservative variants of social Darwinism.
Amos G. As a social darwinism essay reformer, Warner was harshly critical of the almshouse as a means of addressing poverty, disability, and dependency, scorning their undifferentiated approach to a wide range of problems that were products of different causes. Idiots, epileptics, incurables, incompetents, social darwinism essay, the social darwinism essay, abandoned children, foundlings, women for confinement, and a considerable number of the insane, the blind, and the deaf and dumb are all dumped together.
Warner and other early twentieth century reformers championed the establishment of specialized institutions that could classify, treat, supervise, and reform the dependent and disabled.
Similarly, orphaned and abandoned children, who constituted a substantial proportion of the almshouse population would have to be sorted according to their needs and abilities. Reformers did not confine their energies to treating the dependent and disabled. They were also actively engaged in changing the conditions of life for the poor, advocating for the elimination of slums, the enactment of public health legislation, crusading for the elimination of child labor, championing mandatory school attendance laws, and fighting for the creation of parks and playgrounds — all this premised on the Darwinist idea that a healthy, orderly, and just society fostered the conditions for social, political, and economic progress.
Social Darwinism never constituted a formally articulated philosophy; it was used in a variety of often contradictory ways by writers and thinkers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Regardless of the social and political agendas it gave rise to, the one thing all had in common was a scientific data-based approach to defining and offering solutions to social problems.
Whether used to justify laissez-faire or activist public policies, social Social darwinism essay provided a vocabulary and set of concepts that facilitated the emergence of the social sciences and their application to such pressing problems as poverty and social justice.
Carrie Buck v. James Hendren Bell, Superintendent of social darwinism essay Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble Minded. Edwin A. Bridgeport: The Farmer Publishing Company. American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Economics. New York: Thomas Y, social darwinism essay.
How to Cit e this Article APA Format : Hall, P. Social Darwinism and social darwinism essay poor. Social Welfare History Project. Comments for this site have been disabled. Please use our contact form for any research questions.
Skip to main content Social Darwinism and the Poor by Peter Dobkin Hall, School of Public Affair, social darwinism essay, Baruch College, City University of New York Charles Darwin Photo by Henry Maull and John Fox Image: Wikipedia. Richard Hofstadter. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press.
Social Darwinism (1865-1900)
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Jun 25, · It’s often claimed that support for the free market rests on the ideology of social Darwinism. According to this nefarious doctrine, Charles Darwin showed that evolution is a process of struggle. In it, the strong, meaning those best able to reproduce, supplant the weak Jan 01, · Theory of Social Darwinism. The theory of Social Darwinism was put forward by Herbert Spencer in 19th century. Social Darwinism is the general term which applies to several different ways in which people (not biologists) tried to apply a distorted and narrow interpretation of the concept of natural selection to human cultural systems Nov 04, · “Social Problems” is the title of an undergraduate course taught at many colleges; a typical course discusses what is known about a series of conditions considered social problems. In contrast, the sociology of social problems defines social problem differently and adopts a different analytic approach
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