Capitalism and Dawinism
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Industrialization brought in its wake a middle class whose values and beliefs facilitated the accumulation of capital and its continued reinvestment. In the new industrial system, the individual had to learn that it was okay to aspire to a better social status, wealth and prestige, and that these rewards could be acquired through hard work. Thus, the profit motive and the work ethic were given positive social value.
Natural Selection is the primary mechanism within the scientific theory of evolution. Mutations create the genetic variation on which natural selection acts. It is important to note that the term “natural selection” is often used in the inaccurate metaphorical sense as having causal status and has been used to justify social evolutionism.
Social Evolutionism is an anthropological and sociological social theory that holds that societies progress through stages of increasing development, i.e. are influenced by the process of social progress. Thus it deals with the process of social development whereby societies are thought to start out in a primitive state and gradually become more civilized over time. In this context, primitive is associated with animalistic behavior; while civilization is associated with technological progress.
Social Darwinism enjoyed widespread popularity in some European circles, particularly among ruling elites during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this period the global recession of the 1870s encouraged a view of the world which saw societies or nations in competition with one another for survival in a hostile world. This attitude encouraged increasing militarization and the division of the world into colonial spheres of influence. The interpretation of social Darwinism of the time emphasized competition between species and races rather than cooperation. In the time since then, evolutionary theory has de-emphasized inter-species competition as well as the importance of violent confrontation in general. Advances in both the social and natural sciences, therefore, have discredited many of the assumptions on which Social Darwinist theories were built.Proponents of Social Darwinism often used the theory to justify laissez-faire capitalism and social inequality. Others used it to justify racism and imperialism. At its most extreme, some Social Darwinists appear to anticipate eugenics and the race doctrines of the Nazis.
Because Social Darwinism came to