I object to the term Social Darwinism.

[BurtWorm]

Please call it Spencerian economics, or just unfettered or unchecked capitalism instead. That's what Herbert Spencer argued for before Darwin's Origin of Species was even published, even if he later cited Darwin when he fleshed out his fable of the fittest firms finishing first.

I know this is probably a losing battle, but Charles Darwin was not the originator of the ideology associated with his name. In fact the term "survival of the fittest," which describes the philosophy to a T, was coined by Spencer, not Darwin, and was only added to The Origin of Species in the fifth edition.

A wikipedia entry gives a good history of the term and bolsters my case that mixing Darwin up in Spencer's cold-blooded ideology is unjust to him and unfaithful to the truth, not to mention confusing to those who can't distinguish between a political ideology and a scientific theory. Such confusion tends to benefit enemies of science, which is to say, enemies of reason, enlightenment and truth.

[frazzled]

1. You are quite right

Further, Darwin was at pains to explain away the distortions that accrued to the idea of the "survival of the fittest," which had come to be associated with battles, fierce competition, and stength, with "victors" and losers. (This became especially the case in Germany, where the term Kampf aus Dasein had the meaning of a literal battle, rather than the "struggle for life" of Darwin's 1859 title). Of course, in species survival, strong and big could be a liability, where competition for food and water was concerned (smaller species who required less resources had the advantage). Darwin cited the beetles on an island somewhere or other, explaining that those who had lost their wings and thus the ability to fly were actually more likely to survive, because they would not be blown out to sea.

Darwin actually built a major portion of his theory on Malthusian economic theory.

[pnorman]

2. I didn't know that Spenser's philosophy preceded Darwinism until now.

But I did know that the phrase "Survival of the Fittest", was by him rather than by Darwin. Thanks for bringing that topic up, since the misconception is both wide-spread and pernicious.

pnorman

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. I was watching NOVA's 'Lord of the Ants" on-line last night

Which covered E.O Wilson's career and life. He coined the term sociobiology in the book 'Sociobiology: The New Synthesis' in the 70s which caused a huge controversy. Many critics draw an intellectual link between sociobiology and biological determinism, referring to the social Darwinism and eugenics movements of the early 20th century, and to more recent ideas such as the IQ test controversy of the early 1970s. Steven Pinker argues that critics have been overly swayed by politics and a "fear" of biological determinism. However, all these critics have claimed that sociobiology fails on scientific grounds, independent of their political critiques.

However that being said there is some scientific grounds for parts of the theory.

The NOVA link to the program : http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/eowilson/program.html
this program is worth watching for natural science fans


Sociobiology: The New Synthesis ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiology:_The_New_Synthesis


Sociobiology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiology

Edward Osborne Wilson (born June 10, 1929) is an American biologist, researcher (sociobiology, biodiversity), theorist (consilience, biophilia), naturalist (conservationism) and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, a branch of entomology.

A two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, Wilson is known for his career as a scientist, his advocacy for environmentalism, and his secular-humanist ideas pertaining to religious and ethical matters.<1>

As of 2007, he is Pellegrino University Research Professor in Entomology for the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He is a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson

[BurtWorm]

4. kck

[deaniac21]

5. Darwinism

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”