Social Darwinism is not Darwinism;
the phrase survival of the fittest is not
The
quotations are from the online version of
Supporters of Social
Darwinism
Its
British creator |
We have unmistakable proof that throughout all past time, there has been a ceaseless devouring of the weak by the strong. Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903), First Principles |
This
survival of the fittest. Herbert Spencer
(1820-1903), Principles of Biology [1864-1867]. Part III,
chap. 12[1] |
|
|
|
An
advocate in the |
The
law of survival of the fittest was not made by man and cannot be abrogated by
man. We can only by interfering with it, produce the survival of the unfittest…. The sociologist is often asked if he wants to
kill off certain classes of troublesome and burdensome persons. No such
inference follows…. but it is allowed to be inferred, as to a great many
persons and classes, that it would have been better for society, and would
have involved no pain to them, if they had never been born…. William Graham Sumner
(Yale professor), “Sociology” (1881) [2] |
|
|
Critics of Social Darwinism
in the
A scientist |
These much-talked-of laws of nature are violated
every time the highway robber is arrested and sent to jail…. It is absurd to
claim that injustice committed by muscle should be regulated, while that
committed by brain should be unrestrained. Lester Frank Ward
(geologist), The Psychic Factors of Civilization, (1893)[3] |
|
|
Social
Gospel positions of a Baptist clergyman and a Congregationalist clergyman |
“[I]t was necessary to ‘Christianize’ the social
order to bring it ‘into harmony with the ethical convictions which we
identify with Christ.’ The church… must ‘demand protection for the moral
safety of the people.’” Walter Rauschenbush
(clergyman, Baptist)[4] |
|
“’The Christian moralist,’ he wrote, had to tell ‘the
Christian employer’ that the wage system ‘when it rests on competition as its
sole basis is anti-social and anti-Christian.’” Washington Gladden
(clergyman, Congregational) |
[1]
Both quotations from Spencer are from
[2] American Thought: Civil War to World War I, ed. by Perry Miller, p. 80, 88
[3] American Thought: Civil War to World War I, ed. by Perry Miller, p. 112
[4] This and the following quotation quoted in Ayers, American Passages, p. 516.