Social Darwinism

This BBC Radio 4 program was really interesting in hearing about how people have applied evolutionary terms such as natural selection to present day. In some instances twisting it to have a horrendous impact on innocent civilians and society such as considering an 'aryan race' and institutionalising the disabled and sterilising people such as in America and Nazi occupation in Europe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vgq1q

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Social Darwinism. After the publication of Charles Darwin's masterpiece On the Origin of Species in 1859, some thinkers argued that Darwin's ideas about evolution could also be applied to human society. One thinker particularly associated with this movement was Darwin's near-contemporary Herbert Spencer, who coined the phrase 'survival of the fittest'. He argued that competition among humans was beneficial, because it ensured that only the healthiest and most intelligent individuals would succeed. Social Darwinism remained influential for several generations, although its association with eugenics and later adoption as an ideological position by Fascist regimes ensured its eventual downfall from intellectual respectability.

With:

Adam Kuper
Centennial Professor of Anthropology at the LSE, University of London

Gregory Radick
Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds

Charlotte Sleigh
Reader in the History of Science at the University of Kent.

Producer: Thomas Morris.