Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a social theory which holds that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is a model, not only for the development of biological traits in a population, but also as an application for human social institutions — the existing social institutions being implicitly declared as normative. Social Darwinism shares its roots with early progressivism, and was most popular from the late nineteenth century to the end of World War II. Proponents of Social Darwinism argue that the theory justifies social inequality as being meritocratic. Darwin only ventured to propound his theories in a biological sense, and it is other thinkers and theorists who have applied Darwin's model to unequal endowments of human ambition.
Read more about this topic: Meritocracy
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or darwinism:
“Specialization is a feature of every complex organization, be it social or natural, a school system, garden, book, or mammalian body.”
—Catharine R. Stimpson (b. 1936)
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—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)