Darwin and the Victrian era
The Victorian Age was a time when many views on human existence and destiny were formed and discussed. Strictly speaking the Victorian era denotes the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837-1901. When this era came to an end, the ongoing concepts and controversies did not vanish. The old and the new are always confusingly interlocked in culture. The twentieth century inherited some of the ideas of the nineteenth century. Some of these new ideas culminated elaborate philosophical theories that contributed to many disasters. Nazism and Communism are some of the examples of this inherited misfortune. Unfortunately, Darwin in-directly contributed to many of the twentieth century's misfortunes. Indeed, Darwin's theories had a great impact upon the Victorian era, and upon the future generations.Darwinism had great effects on nineteenth century thought because it was yet another wonderful new synthesis. It was connected by dimly perceived links with the other revelations of physical nature. Organic chemistry and, even more, bacteriology were already forging some links between the mathematical, physical, and biological sciences. It was suggested that life is a process of chemical change. Charles Darwin brough
Darwin's theories were characteristically rooted in the material and techno-logical progress of the time. The geological know1edge from which Darwin began had been greatly enhanced by the collection of fossils worldwide; biological knowledge of the selective breeding of plants and animals came from the experimental laboratory, farmers, and amateur breeders. Conceptions of evolution and even the role of evolution in differentiating species had been much discussed during the previous half-century as a result of the work of Lamarck. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire in France had defended the idea of the unity of life, of a fundamental relationship between all living things, as the basis of biology. The idea of environment as a totality of the surrounding conditions determining life and human society was familiar to historians such as H. T. Buckle even before Darwin wrote (Woodward 530, Appleman 4-5). Another variant of Social Darwinism treats the units competing in the struggle for life as racial and national units, not individual. Within these units, the Darwinian concept of the struggle for life is subdued, and mutual help prevails. Yet among all these units the struggle goes on as Evolution intends. The unit that beats another in war and economic competition is thereby proved to be the fittest and should use individuals of the deferred unit to serve the successful na-tion or race. Just as Darwin's ideas, transferred to socio-economic problems, reinforcing nineteenth century laissez-faire individualism, so his ideas, transferred to international relations, justifying war and im-perial expansion by a dominant nation or race. Semmel notes within the Victorian hunger for progress that it was "reasonable to view 'progress' as the result of an evolutionary struggle between groups of men, between tribes or nations or races, the fittest group predominating in the ceaseless warfare which constituted the evolutionary process" (30). The English Spencerian objector Benjamin Kidd can be
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3855
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page double spaced)
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