Conservatism Supports Social Darwinism

470 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: urban vs rural lifestyles

Social Darwinism is the belief that the individual is more powerful than society. It encourages a ruthless system of self-interest and intolerant treatment of others. Those who believe in Social Darwinism believe that the society is inferior to the needs of the individual. Often those who believe in Social Darwinism are racist and believe that the white origin is the superior race of society. Social Darwinism is the opposite of socialism. Socialists believe that society comes before the individual while those who follow Social Darwinism believe the individual comes before society. However, Social Darwinism has been incorporated into the belief of socialism mainly with the fact that people believe that they can rise about the “natural law” and through planning they can create the perfect society. They believe that they can live their lives in a utopian society. Socialism believes in government intervention to control the means of production. Therefore, the state controls the production within the country and control the direction, which the country goes.

Liberalism took the aspect of survival of the fittest into its beliefs. In a liberal economy, the individuals control the means of production so that there is a choice in what to purchase. Liberalists believe that the marketplace follows a natural cycle of supply and demand and therefore the government should not interfere. This With this system, products that do not sell are dropped in favor of more useful goods. Consumer sovereignty is the key factor in this society. This same approach was taken towards the poor. Liberals believed that others should not be able to leech off those who worked hard and contributed to society. The church and other volunteer organizations should have provide help. A liberal society thinks that those who work hard and are motivated should be rewarded while those who are lazy should be punished. The beliefs of liberalism tie into those of Social Darwinism because once again the needs of the individual are more important than those of society.

The aspect that relates to conservatism to Social Darwinism is the aspect of a certain class or group of people to be superior to any other group which is considered to be inferior. Conservatists believed that only the upper class and the church should provide leadership.

Show More
Related

  • Liberal's Opinion on American Government

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Liberals focus on the bad side of human nature, and look to the government to protect us from it. They see the fragility of the human spirit and overwhelming outside factors as the determining reason why people struggle. They see those who are born with better looks, more intelligence, more athletic skills, more creative skill, or more money as having an unfair advantage in life. They believe that those at the top have gotten there either by these advantages, or by stepping on people. This is why they view those at the top skeptically, because if they stepped on people to get there, they will continue to step on people once they are there. They see examples of this in their own everyday life... The snob from school who had everything given to him, who is now a successful business owner that pays all of his employees minimum wage so he can drive a Caddy. The poor kid from down the block who had to quit school to help support his family, and now works menial labor jobs because he never got the chance to get an education. Why should some people fail, while others succeed? Liberal’s believe that life shouldn't be like that.

    Read More

  • Social Darwinism Vs Social Gospel

    262 Words  | 1 Pages

    Both social darwinism and social gospel are ideologies surrounding the economics of urban and industrialization of the 19th century. Both of these were processes on the wealthy, and exactly how they would deal with poor and working class individuals. However, the specific execution on how these were done, as well as the goal were vastly different. Social Darwinism, just like Evolutionary Darwinism, really means survival of the fittest. The strongest survive and the weakest stay weak and eventually die. Relating this theory to economics; Social Darwinism is when a wealthy person keeps his money for him and his kin. Said person usually holds an attitude of, “the rich should get richer and the poor should stay poor.” On the other side of the economic

    Read More

  • Social Morwinism: The Theory Of Social Darwinism

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    The theory of Social Darwinism stems from the idea that the human species can progress by following the principal of Charles Darwin’s natural selection, in which he states that plants and animals that can adapt to changes in their environment are able to survive and reproduce, while those that cannot adapt will die. Social Darwinists applied this biological concept to social, political and economic issues, which created the “survival of the fittest” attitude, as well as competition and inequality between social groups. This paper will discuss some of the proponents of this theory, the results of their interpretation and application of the theory, and why this theory no longer holds a prominent position in Anthropological theory.

    Read More

  • Liberal Democracy In Latin America

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    First, a liberal is either someone or multiple people who wants to change colonials from the past, to make it more modern. They also want to reduce church power, increase secular institution. Secular Institution is an organization of individuals who are consecrated persons .What the liberal progress wanted was to have new technology, to be like Europe, they believed in science and no slavery. A liberal democracy is a representative system with some

    Read More

  • Socialism Argumentative Essay

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socialism is a social and economic system where the means of productions are shared indivisibly throughout the community or enterprise rather than in the names of a few individuals. Or more simply put Socialists believe that the Chief Executives of a corporation are not the ones who deserve the big pay check. They believe that the working men and women deserve more money because they are they ones out in the field doing the work. The main goal of socialism is to more evenly distribute the wealth. They care more about having more people living comfortably than just a few individuals getting wealthy. Socialist ideas in todays politics are what they believe will make it easier for Americans to live in America.

    Read More

  • Social Darwinism and Race Superiority In The West

    2028 Words  | 5 Pages

    Social Darwinism was a set of theories developed by various people during the 19th century. It was the adaptation of Darwin theory of evolution applied to human social behavior and ability to survive compared to other human beings. It can now easily be seen that these theories could be used to justify racial discrimination and they have been used in this way throughout history. This misconception of Darwin’s theories popularized by various academics in the west gave western nations to treat other nations badly. People like French man Joseph Gobineau had already come up with race supremacy ideas before Darwin’s theories of evolution had started to become a popular idea. He took his ideas from what he was seeing around him at the time not looking at other factors as to why people from these other races had not succeeded in the same way his own race had. Similar ideas again were backed up in the French translation of Darwin’s The Origin of Species as an introduction added by the translator Clemence Royer applied some of Darwin’s ideas to the different human races. Herbert Spencer probably the most popular Social Darwinists believed that the fight between races was inevitable and time would tell who came out on top. These race supremacy ideas were put into use by colonial Britain which showed that many ‘well educated’ and like wise people in the west believed that social evolution had made them a more advanced race.

    Read More

  • Social Darwinism, the Gospel of Wealth, and the Gilded Age

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social Darwinism is a late 19th century term used to describe the application of British naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to social and political conditions. Late 19th century sociologist Herbert Spencer tried to capture the essence of social Darwinism with his phrase “survival of the fittest”. This essentially meant that the strong would rise to the top while the weak simply died out. Social Darwinists eschew social responsibility and compassion, instead believing that some people are more fit to survive than others. Many social Darwinists advocated that the government should maintain a laissez-faire, or hands off, approach when it came to regulating economic competition and alleviating social inequalities. Social Darwinism was used to justify the consolidation of the majority of wealth by a minority of Americans. The term allowed people to rationalize capitalism, imperialism, racism, and even eugenics. The wealthy believed in social Darwinism because it allowed them to justify their oppressive business tactics and low wages for their labor force. Politicians believed in it because it allowed them to justify imperialism, or expansion of the nation. Affluent Anglo-Saxons believed in social Darwinism, believing themselves to be the superior race, and used it to justify ...

    Read More

  • Liberalism vs. Conservatism

    606 Words  | 2 Pages

    Liberalism, formed in the latter part of the 18th Century from opposition to existing political monarchies in Europe, was based on rights of individuals and the responsibility of government to protect those rights. Conservative philosophy was born as a reaction to dangerous tendencies detected within the liberal movement toward excessive governmental control. While conservatives form the base of their beliefs on traditional values, respect for authority, and maintaining custom, liberals fought government tendencies to diminish, ignore, or abuse individual human rights. Both beliefs balanced each other until liberalism shifted its emphasis from protecting individual rights from government to using government as a source for supplying basic life necessities. The modern liberal agenda began as President Johnson's Great Society to wipe out poverty and enhance the quality of life for all Americans.

    Read More

  • Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Social Darwinism

    2626 Words  | 6 Pages

    Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.

    Read More

  • What's Social Darwinism?

    305 Words  | 1 Pages

    Social darwinism is about how one guy came up with the theory how all humans are the same as plants and animals it’s just that we are more advanced and educated in our lives than plants and animals. Although people as a society have these different images of people that are either black or white and that’s not right. People that are black have had to suffer an extrem amount poverty for example some blacks had to drink out of seperate water fountains which probably contained unhealthy elements also the blacks had to go to different areas if they were black or asian or europeon which were lower in quality as if it was a movie or a game or even a resturante. As for Social Darwinsm it is mainly about for the survival of the fittest so if a father

    Read More

  • Comparing Classical vs. Modern Liberalism

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    Liberalism is an ideology and due to the changing views of historical persons, who have each viewed themselves to be Liberals, is difficult to define precisely. There are five agreed defining tenants of Liberalism. The most important of these, percolating through the ideology, is the ‘Importance of the Individual’, and closely interlinked with this is ‘Freedom’, which leads on to the concept of ‘Individual Freedom or liberty’. Liberals believe that humankind is a rational species, and thus ‘Reason’ is a third tenant. Furthermore Liberalism advocates that the principle of ‘Justice’ and Toleration’ are fundamental in the well being of society and each of these aspects relates directly back to the quintessential first tenant. Liberalism, according to Habermas “emphasizes individual freedom from restraint and is usually based on free competition, the self-regulating market, and the gold standard; c: a political philosophy based on belief in progress, the essential goodness of the human race, and the autonomy of the individual and standing for the protection of political and civil liberties.” As an individualist, rather than a collectivist ideology the individual is placed as the building block of society. J. S. Mill says ...

    Read More

  • Liberalism And Democracy Essay

    2782 Words  | 6 Pages

    Liberalism in the sense of a political philosophy was created on the ideas of equality and liberty for everyone. Basically liberalism is concerned with the notion of how individuals in political communities are able to maximize their freedom without violating the rights of other individuals. The liberalistic view on politics is that a legitimate government is necessary to protect the rights of individuals from being harmed by others. Liberalism also ensures that there is a higher authority which protects the freedoms and rights of individuals while also ensuring legitimacy of government. Liberalism is the founding base for much of the Western world’s government policies and constitution. Liberalism ensures tolerance and promotes acceptance between humans and their differences.

    Read More

  • Marxist Criticism Of Marxism

    1452 Words  | 3 Pages

    Liberalism, although having had its roots in late 18th century and having remained relevant through the last more than 2 centuries, has evolved and morphed over this period. The liberalism we see now, pervasive across the globe, has given rise to a free market economic system. While this free “marketism” is inherently open to exploitation and inequality, it is a system that undeniably creates opportunity. Modern day philosophers like Thomas Piketty and other have placed the liberal and Marxist debates back onto the agenda and placed them

    Read More

  • Liberalism In International Relations Essay

    1846 Words  | 4 Pages

    Liberalism is a political or social philosophy that advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary system of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutes to assure unrestricted development in all sphere of the human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.

    Read More

  • Darwinism Essay

    1558 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social Darwinism is the application of Darwin’s teachings outside of science, such as in biology, philosophy, religion, and politics, among other fields. While this connection may not seem to be applicable, the concepts of Darwinism can be found in many areas of society. As a result, social Darwinism has had a significant impact on the development of Western civilization simply because the concepts of Darwinism can be applied to society in the ways they can

    Read More

More about Conservatism Supports Social Darwinism

Open Document