ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Darwinism, Militarism, Unilineal Evolution
Document Summary
Competition and the struggle for survival are the causes of human progress. The theory of social selection: struggle to gain a living is a force for good, key to survival for humans. Ability to innovate: those who die prematurely must be, on average, those whose ability is low, those left to continue population are those whose skill and intelligence is highest, (cid:862)survival of the fittest(cid:863) Spencer opposed anything that would violate the selection principle by artificially preserving the least capable. Extremely popular ideas in the united states. Jd rockefeller said in 1915: (cid:862)the growth of a large business is merely the survival of the fittest(cid:863) James j. hill (cid:862)the fortunes of railroad companies are determined by the laws of the survival of the fittest(cid:863) Was quite on the opposite side of the scale. In 1889, he wrote (cid:862)the gospel of wealth(cid:863) Problems with applying the (cid:862)war of nature(cid:863) to society.