darwinism 2
Darwinism, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of intellectuals. People applied Darwinism and its belief in survival of the fittest to all areas of life. They used it as a "natural law" which supported their actions and beliefs. Advocates manipulated the scientific doctrine to fulfill their personal needs and to justify religious beliefs, capitalism, and military conquests. Darwinism greatly impacted the scientific world purely through its specific doctrine. The enlightenment had paved the way for rational thinking and observation. People were willing to a
In addition to rejecting business regulation, Darwinism could be manipulated to reject the socialist institutions that capitalists opposed. Socialist programs had sprung up in many areas of the world by this time period, but as R.J. Halliday wrote, "Socialism ran counter to natural law by limiting the scope of selection and competition." People such as Marx, strongly rejected systems of social classes and sought their elimination. However, the people who benefited from the existence of social classes supported their economic views with principles of Darwinism. Socialists sought to make everyone equal and they wanted to do away with competition. Under the scrutiny of Darwinism, this would hinder the growth of society by promoting the negative traits of humans. When lazy and unskilled people are as successful as the dedicated and talented workers, the system does not flourish and growth is minimal. Social programs that aid the poor, the criminal, and the insane hurt society because they also attempt to level the playing field. This allows the weak to maintain enough power to reproduce and spread their weakness on to the next generation. Capitalists feel that the people should be left to fend for themselves, as Darwin's creatures are in nature, so that they can evolve to better things. As socialist writings such as The Communist Manifesto were spread throughout Europe, their opposition in turn spread literature about the social implications of Darwinism, and thus it became a definitive ideology of the nineteenth century. ccept scientific data as fact and they were able to objectively consider theories that went against the church. Because of the story of creation, Darwinism would have been immediately rejected only a few centuries earlier. People used Darwinism as a weapon to strike at the validity of the powerful religious inst
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Approximate Word count = 1248
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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