Evolutionary Theory and The Political Left - Comparative History

Comparative History

Scientific theories of evolution developed at approximately the same time as left-wing political theories. The Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 — 1829) published his theory of evolution in Philosophie Zoologique in 1809. Although he supported the then novel views that the Earth was ancient and organisms evolved through common descent, his mechanism was one of advancement, not natural selection (which would come later). This mechanism of advancement fitted in with cultural ideas of the Great chain of being, up which organisms would advance. While in France these ideas fitted with revolutionary philosophy and were accepted by the scientific establishment, in the United Kingdom such ideas were taken up by socialist agitators who stirred the mob to overthrow the social order and Chartists who even demanded the vote for working men. In England the scientific establishment was dominated by university clergymen who sought to demonstrate divine rule and justify the existing social hierarchy.

Karl Marx (1818 — 1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820 — 1895) published The Communist Manifesto in 1848, with Marx's work Das Kapital published in three volumes in 1867, 1885 and 1894. These works established the principles of communism, which had at its core the evolution of societies by advancement between different states. This, they argued, was caused by class struggle, and the proletariat should co-operate to overthrow the bourgeoisie.

When Karl Marx read Darwin's work on evolution he immediately believed that it supported his worldview and theory of class struggle. Karl Marx sent Darwin an autographed copy of his Das Kapital; Darwin responded with a polite "thank you" letter, but never read the book. Marx believed that Darwin's work both helped to explain the internal struggles of human society, and provided a material explanation for the processes of nature, something which his philosophy was heavily based on. However, he had difficulty accepting the apparent support Darwin's book gave to the theories of Thomas Malthus.

In 1861 Karl Marx wrote to his friend Ferdinand Lassalle, "Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle. ... Despite all shortcomings, it is here that, for the first time, ‘teleology’ in natural science is not only dealt a mortal blow but its rational meaning is empirically explained."

The radical economist Herbert Spencer (1820 — 1903) coined the phrase survival of the fittest in his 1851 work Social Statics to describe his revolutionary liberal economic theory, which in 20th century terms would be considered right-wing. Spencer supported the Whig Malthusian argument that programmes to aid the poor, (i.e. the proletariat) did more harm than good, in direct contrast to Tory paternalism, and to communism which advocated "to each according to their needs, from each according to their ability".

Charles Darwin (1809 — 1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 — 1913) published their theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858, with Darwin's Origin of Species following a year later. Darwin's thesis was that organisms were able to reproduce because of differential survival (ecological selection) or attractiveness (sexual selection).

Spencer became a strong advocate of Darwinism, and the phrase survival of the fittest was included in the 6th edition of The Origin of Species published in 1872. Darwinism thus became associated with Spencer's economics and social philosophy.

Darwin was part of an upper middle-class elite. His cousin, Francis Galton (1822 — 1911) considered the implications of natural selection for human breeding, and developed what he later termed eugenics. This was taken up by others as a pseudoscience and the concepts were introduced that persons of noble blood, and those of Caucasian race should be selected by society to breed over those of lower classes and other races. In terms of class struggle, this could be seen as a form of oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie.

Despite the new emphasis on natural selection, Darwin did, from the 3rd edition of Origins, include certain aspects of Lamarckism since disproven, such as the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The concept of advancement however was also still present, as can be seen in Darwin's 1871 Descent of Man

Darwin's theory was far from complete however, and the period between Darwin's death and the neo-Darwinian modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1920s and 1930s has become known as the eclipse of Darwinism because of the rejection of natural selection in favour of Lamarckian advancement.

Other noted left-wing thinkers in the late 19th century weighed in on the subject including Sir George Archdall Reid (1860 — 1929) in 1896 who published a work The Present Evolution of Man, and the Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (1842 — 1921) in 1902 published Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, which particularly opposed the "nature red in tooth and claw" concept.

The great British evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane (1892 —1964) and his esteemed pupil John Maynard Smith, (1920 — 2004) were both communists, and both worked for the British governments during the first and second world wars respectively.