BIOL 3200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Social Darwinism, Sociocultural Evolution, Social Evolution
Document Summary
Darwin was well aware of the debates around him. He wrote in an anthropomorphic (representation of object as having human traits) manner. This made it easy for his arguments to resonate into sociopolitical context of life. O(cid:373)e argue that he (cid:449)as(cid:374)"t a so(cid:272)ial dar(cid:449)i(cid:374)ist, a(cid:374)d there (cid:449)as (cid:374)othi(cid:374)g ideologi(cid:272)al in his views of nature. Darwin talked about some of his socioevolutionary views in the descent of the. Man (1871: (cid:862)with sa(cid:448)ages, the (cid:449)eak i(cid:374) (cid:271)od(cid:455) or (cid:373)i(cid:374)d are soo(cid:374) eli(cid:373)i(cid:374)ated; a(cid:374)d those that survive commonly exhibit a vigorous state of health. There is reason to believe that vaccination has preserved thousands, who from a weak constitution would formerly have succumbed to small-pox. Thus the weak members of civilised societies propagate their kind. No one who: has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the ra(cid:272)e of (cid:373)a(cid:374). (cid:863) Darwinian theory and social theory shared a common context.
