Social Darwinism refers to various ideologies based on a concept that competition among all individuals, groups, nations, or ideas drivessocial evolution in human societies.[1]
The term draws upon the common use of the term Darwinism, which is a social adaptation of the theory of natural selection as first advanced byCharles Darwin. Natural selection explains speciation in populations as the outcome of competition between individual organisms for limited resources, popularly known as "survival of the fittest", a term coined by anthropologist Herbert Spencer, or "The Gospel of Wealth" theory written by Andrew Carnegie.
The term first appeared in Europe in 1877[2] and was popularized in the United States in 1944 by the American historian Richard Hofstadter. The term "social darwinism" has rarely been used by advocates; instead it has chiefly been used (pejoratively) by its opponents.[3]
While the term has been applied to the claim that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection can be used to understand the social endurance of a nation or country, social Darwinism commonly refers to ideas that predate Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species. Others whose ideas are given the label include the 18th century clergyman Thomas Malthus, and Darwin's cousin Francis Galton who foundedeugenics towards the end of the 19th century.
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