SOC211H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Personality Disorder, Remorse, Reality Principle
Document Summary
Social darwinism: herbert spencer darwins natural selection . Lecture 5 biological & psychological perspectives of crime. Darwin didn"t want to apply the principle of survival of the fittest to human society. But herbert spencer did survival of the fittest. Idea that natural selection favors certain traits over others; those with the favorable traits will possess these benefits and end up at the top of the social hierarchy. Nature & society = preservation of favored races in the struggle of life. Social competition for survival (1)fit: disciplined, intelligent, rich (2)unfit: lazy, dumb, poor, criminals. What to do with those who are unfit, devolved, atavistic: (1)automatically eliminated/reduced process of removing the unfit is automatic (2)purposefully excluded/eliminated we can speed up this process, by purposefully removing the socially unfit. This is done in order to prevent the contamination of the healthy workhouses, asylums (3) prevented from producing offspring via eugenics. Positive: for marriage, procreation of desirable traits in people.
