Social Darwinism

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2014

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Social Darwinism. After the publication of Charles Darwin's masterpiece On the Origin of Species in 1859, some thinkers argued that Darwin's ideas about evolution could also be applied to human society. One thinker particularly associated with this movement was Darwin's near-contemporary Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest'. He argued that competition among humans was beneficial, because it ensured that only the healthiest and most intelligent individuals would succeed. Social Darwinism remained influential for several generations, although its association with eugenics and later adoption as an ideological position by Fascist regimes ensured its eventual downfall from intellectual respectability.

With:

Adam Kuper Centennial Professor of Anthropology at the LSE, University of London

Gregory Radick Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds

Charlotte Sleigh Reader in the History of Science at the University of Kent.

Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:45.9	the program. Hello when Charles Darwin published his masterpiece on the origin of
0:50.4	species by means of natural selection in 1859 he laid the foundations for a new
0:55.4	era in scientific inquiry. His theory that organisms had involved into their current forms
1:01.1	over millions of years revolutionised biology and is arguably
1:04.6	one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of science.
1:07.6	But the significance of Darwin's thoughts reached beyond the realm of biology.
1:11.6	philosophers, economists and political scientists applied the realm of biology. Philosophers, economists and political scientists
1:13.6	applied the concepts of evolution and natural selection to their own fields and in the
1:18.3	second half of the 19th century this gave rise to a school of thought known today
1:22.0	a social Darwinism which attempted to understand
1:25.1	a society by seeing it as a struggle between competing individuals.
1:29.2	Later, it also led to the sides of eugenics, eugenics, which sought to control and improve the genetic makeup
1:35.2	of the human population.
1:37.4	Social Darwinism remained influential until the 1930s, but since the mid-20th century the term
	...

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