Social Darwinism Research Articles

Is Social Darwinism wrong because mechanistic explanation is useful?

Is Social Darwinism wrong because mechanistic explanation is useful?

Review: Cairo in Chicago: Cairo Street at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893

Review: <i>Cairo in Chicago: Cairo Street at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893</i>

Dynamic Community And Modern Islamic Applications: The Study Of Muhammad Abduh's Epistemology

Since entering the era of decline, Muslims no longer produce outstanding achievements in the field of science. Western scholars then developed science with the materials developed from the work of Muslim scholars. Of course, there are weaknesses inherent in Western civilization. However, they creatively produce new things to be studied. In the 19th century, scientific optimism was partly due to the emergence of the theory of Darwin (Charles Darwin), Herbert Spencer (Social Darwinism), before Agust Comte, and so on. Abduh himself met Herbert Spencer in England. The findings of Western intellectuals became the subject of discussion by Muhammad Abduh. Islam is not against science. This is what Muhammad Abduh often said. The Islamic thought reform movement is a challenging study and continues to be explored. One fundamental challenge faced by Muslim thinkers in the 19th century was the decline of Islam. This demands to be solved and found a solution. How did Islamic reformers respond to the challenges of the tough times? Good because, factually, Muslims are in a lagging position. Also, many Muslim countries are under the occupation of the West.

Cywilizacja jako proces część 2: Kryzys idei

Civilization as a Process: The Crisis of the Idea The article presents the history of the notion of civilization at the stage of emerging civilizational pluralism. This presentation offers a critical reconstruction of civilizational essentialism, at least partially racist in character, which at the turn of the 20th century became the basic method for civilizational studies. In order to fully reveal the grounds upon which civilizational studies adopted “scientific” racism in the middle of the 19th century the text discusses the history of this research paradigm beginning from when the term “civilization” became prominent not only in moral but also historical and sociological analysis. On the one hand, this throws a clear light on the uncomfortable heritage of the discipline in terms of its mission to “civilize,” one that civilizational studies have faced until the present day. On the other, the article shows that the direction they chose in the times of social darwinism’s cultural triumph was not inevitable. In its shadow there have existed alternative civilizational studies with Norbert Elias as their early proponent. In order to develop them further one must not forget the history of the paradigm and hence this article is devoted to discovering the causes of the crisis in the colonial era of the Enlightenment idea of civilization, so important for Elias.

Scientism and the evolution of philosophies and ideologies of structural racism against Africans

One of the fundamental fallacies of racism is the confusion between biological accidents such as: body, colour, environment, size, shape, and melanin with metaphysical essences like; soul, mind, and intellect. Personness for instance is an essential category that does not depend on the above accidental attributes. Since time immemorial, racism has been reinforced by deeply entrenched social structures. These structures are the offspring of both overt and covert racism. Structural racism is epitomised by ideologies that have been well disguised under facades of science. These ideologies include: Eugenics, Social Darwinism, Modernisation theory and Neo-liberalism. This paper critically analyses the religious, political, psychoanalytic, historical and economic construction of structural and institutional racism that reinforces honorary whiteness in the African social milieu. The paper argues that the purpose of racism is constructing Black and Brown people as entities in dire need of White Saviourism and White Paternalism. This consequently culminates into imperialism, neo-colonialism, subjugation and exploitation. The paper further contends that racism is crystalised through mental colonialism which rides on socially constructed racial binaries, dichotomies and hierarchies such as: White (righteous) and Black (evil), North (top) and South (bottom), West (Sun-rise) and (Sun-set), Aryan and Honorary Aryan, White and Honorary White.

Overrepresentation of Whiteness Is in Sign Language As Well: A Commentary on “Undoing Competence: Coloniality, Homogeneity, and the Overrepresentation of Whiteness in Applied Linguistics”

Overrepresentation of Whiteness Is in Sign Language As Well: A Commentary on “Undoing Competence: Coloniality, Homogeneity, and the Overrepresentation of Whiteness in Applied Linguistics”

Social Kropotkinism: The Best ‘New Normal’ for Survival in the Post COVID-19, Climate Emergency World?

Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin was originally an evolutionary biologist, writing shortly after Charles Darwin, who pointed to collaboration rather than competition as the underlying driver of (human) evolution, development and survival. This paper questions why ‘Social Darwinism’ has entered the language when ‘Social Kropotkinism’ has not. We position Social Kropotkinism – based on mutual support and community cooperation as opposed to Darwinian survival of the fittest – as having value as a new societal organising principle that can help to ensure social justice and equitable distribution of increasingly scarce resources in the post-pandemic, climate emergency world. We chart the re-emergence of Kropotkin’s ideas of mutualism against the current literature on the evolution of human cooperation, showing how the blossoming of community-level mutual aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has exposed and filled many cracks in UK Government provision of welfare and social care, is the inevitable end-result of the empathy and predisposition for cooperation that has underpinned the development of complex societies and civilisation.&#x0D; &#x0D; Received: 5 August 2022 / Accepted: 13 October 2022 / Published: 5 November 2022

American Slavery, American Imperialism: US Perceptions of Global Servitude, 1870–1914

American Slavery, American Imperialism: US Perceptions of Global Servitude, 1870–1914

Romanticism, Nationalism and Democracy: The Research About Political Thoughts of Zhou Taixuan

Since Chen Duxiu, one of the leaders of New Culture Movement claimed that the only thing which can rescue China from suppression and poverty were Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science. (Chen, 1917) Liberal Chinese enlighteners have believed that democracy and science are two wheels in one car for a long time. But the current nationalism and totalitarian tendencies of science and engineering students and scholars are far higher than those of the humanities. This seems to reveal to us a more complicated relationship between the two concepts: democracy and science. As a result, the research about intellectuals with both background about politics and science will be necessary. And I will choose three scientists as the examples to get in touch with this problem: Ding Wenjiang, Zhou Taixuan and Gao Shiqi. Zhou Taixuan was a biologist with spiritual of romanticism. As an anarchist from 1919-1920, he turned to nationalism and statism since 1921 after he argued with his friends about religion and reading the work of social Darwinism. However, though he still tried to combine democracy with statism. By reading his works and analyzing the internal path of his thoughts, will get a deeper understanding about the problem with democracy and science.

The ‘Optimistic Cruelty’ of Hayek’s Market Order: Neoliberalism, Pain and Social Selection

This article argues that cruelty, as a willingness to see or orchestrate the suffering of others, is not an unfortunate side-effect of neoliberal theories put into practice but is constitutive of the neoliberal project from its theoretical inception. Drawing on Lisa Duggan’s concept of ‘optimistic cruelty’ and treating the canonical texts of neoliberal economic theory as literary artefacts, the article develops this argument through a close reading of one of the central architects of the neoliberal project, the philosopher and economist Friedrich Hayek. The first part of the article examines how Hayek attempts to justify the brutality of the market order he imagines – the catallaxy – by arguing that this brutality is the natural consequence of the spontaneous evolutionary processes that move civilisation forward. The second part brings to the fore the eugenicist undertones that suffuse this vision, despite Hayek’s apparent rejection of Social Darwinism. I analyse how Hayek’s market order operates through a series of disciplinary and biopolitical technologies that use pain, frustration, punishment and stigmatisation to eliminate bad habits, practices and subjectivities. These cruel mechanisms enable the catallaxy to sort between productive and unproductive lives to ensure that available resources are directed towards the former – even if it means that the others might be left to die. As such, cruelty is an affective atmosphere that permeates the catallaxy.

On Evolutionary Biology, the Apostle Paul and Common Good

In this article our aim is to present some of the coordinates of the debate around common good. Starting by recognizing the importance of common good for the Christian worldview after the presence of it in St. Paul’s “the manifestation of Spirit is given for the common good”, we will present two ways of interpreting the development of our moral and emotional tendencies that have to do with two different evolutionary approaches. By the end of the article, we hope to have established the argumental advantage of the cooperativist in front of the social Darwinist, opening the possibility for a possible interpretation of evolution as guided towards common good.

The role of anti‐capitalism in Hitler's world view

AbstractAnti‐capitalism played a more important role in Hitler's world view than is generally assumed. Hitler was sceptical about nationalising all means of production because, as a Social Darwinist, he feared that this would override natural selection in the economic sphere. From the mid‐1930s, however, he became increasingly convinced that a planned economy was far superior to a market economy and, with time, came to increasingly admire the Soviet system.

“A Revolution in Labor”: African Americans and Hybrid Labor Activism in Illinois during the Early Jim Crow Era

“A Revolution in Labor”: African Americans and Hybrid Labor Activism in Illinois during the Early Jim Crow Era

Power and Vitalism in the Balkan Wars: State of Forces, War Goals and Social Darwinism

L’initiative, à première vue disproportionnée, des petits États balkaniques de régler avec l’Empire ottoman leurs questions nationales par la force durant les Guerres balkaniques recèle encore une part de paradoxe. Cette disproportion place la question de la puissance au cœur des relations balkaniques. Cette notion s’entend ici non seulement comme la simple somme mécanique des forces concrètes d’un pays dans tous les domaines, du diplomatico-militaire au culturel en passant par l’économique et le social, mais aussi comme la mesure de sa vitalité en termes socio-darwinistes dans le champ de compétition belliqueuse limité des Balkans, et même dans un au-delà impérial dont il convient de circonscrire l’imaginaire.

Учение о дегенерации и антиэволюционизм в религиозной мысли XIX в.

The paper deals with the history of the notion of degeneration in theoretical thinking of the religion-driven opponents of evolutionism. The notion of degeneration is commonly perceived as something that goes hand in hand with Social Darwinism and other trends of evolutionary thought. Evolutionists of the past usually understood degeneration as a reversal to the ancestral condition, and applied this notion to criminals, mentally ill persons and paupers. However, during the pre-Darwinian time, conservative supporters of the biblical literalism took the doctrine of degeneration very differently, construing it as a rival model to evolutionism. According to this model degeneration is a process of gradual descent from the exalted state in which Adam and its progeny were initially created by God. Prominent proponents of the doctrine of degeneration, such as Richard Whately, a Church of England Archbishop, and Nicholas Wiseman, a Catholic cardinal, argued that the primeval man, created by God, was civilized, far from being in a savage condition, called the state of nature by J.J. Rousseau and his disciples. Antievolutionary doctrine of degeneration suggested that the mode of life of modern savages could not be considered as an original one, because primitive tribes had degraded under the impact of harsh climate and other factors. Degenerationists underscored that humans were unable to invent civilization from scratch without help from God. The doctrine of degeneration enjoyed much influence, so that Charles Darwin himself, and other evolutionists, like Robert Chambers and John Lubbock, felt obliged to counter it. Nevertheless, the doctrine still had some support in the religious camp in 1870. The fact that the notion of degeneracy, initially used by opponents of evolutionism, has been eventually incorporated into the evolutionary worldview by the followers of Darwin is just another example of how triumphant paradigms absorb conceptual elements of their defeated rivals.

“Let the strongest survive”: Ageism and social Darwinism as barriers to supporting policies to benefit older individuals

AbstractThe World Health Organization (WHO) identified +65 individuals as one of the most vulnerable populations in the current pandemic. Previous research has shown a robust association between ageism and derogatory attitudes and behaviors targeting older people. We proposed that reluctance of people under age 65 to endorse the policies that benefit older adults can be further explained by their adherence to social Darwinism. We tested a mediation model to examine whether social Darwinism would predict support for policies directly and indirectly through the endorsement of ageist attitudes. We conducted two correlational studies in Turkey (Study 1;N= 1261) and the United States (Study 2;N= 210). In Study 1, we collected data through social media and messaging platforms in April 2020. In Study 2, participants were recruited via Prolific Academic in May 2020. In both studies, we found that adherence to social Darwinist beliefs negatively predicted support for policies. We also found that this association was positively mediated by ageist attitudes. Overall, our research contributes to the scholarly effort to identify the social‐psychological barriers to public support for legal initiatives aimed to secure a healthy and productive future for older people.

Are netizens social Darwinists?: Recontextualization of Chinese survival discourse in online discussions about the US-China trade war

Abstract Survival discourse has emerged as a prominent theme in online discussions about the US–China trade war on the Chinese social media platform Zhihu. This study undertakes a critical discourse analysis of this emergent discourse by examining 80 answers (totaling 95,753 words) from Zhihu users within the broader context of the invocation of survival discourses in modern Chinese history. An intertextual method was adopted in this study, which helps us to better understand netizens’ arguments in favor of the Chinese government’s tough stance on the trade war with the US and the probable success of this strategy. The analysis reveals the historicity and intertextuality of these discourses, identifies strategies which are employed to support a tough stance on the trade war, and reflects on their implications.

‘Wolves of the Krypteia’: Lycanthropy and right-wing extremism in metal’s reception of ancient Greece and Rome

Metal’s pervasive (were)wolf motifs are key hermeneutics for the reception of classical antiquity by right-wing bands. Continuities of lupine themes and romanticization of Sparta and Rome exist between fascist Germany and Italy, contemporary far-right political and pagan organizations, and bands that combine these two subjects in a unique but consistent way. Also inspired by Nietzsche, Evola and social Darwinists, bands such as Der Stürmer, Kataxu and Spearhead trace their biological and spiritual ancestry to Sparta, emulating their lycanthropic militarism and racial terrorism. Bands such as Hesperia, Diocletian and Deströyer 666 utilize Roman wolf iconography to promote the destruction of civilization and return to ‘natural’ hierarchies. Like their fascist predecessors, these artists perpetuate patriarchal and racist distortions of both lupine behaviour and ancient Mediterranean civilizations. Such constructions nevertheless extend from the resonance of both wolves and classical antiquity with metal’s common themes of transgression, hypermasculinity, elitism and nostalgia for premodernity.

Pragmatism's Evolution: Organism and Environment in American Philosophy

Pragmatism's Evolution: Organism and Environment in American Philosophy

An ideology of erasure

The discrimination faced by intersex people plays a major role in their life, including therapeutic and psychological settings. Thus, the range and expression of interphobia is crucial for therapists and practitioners to understand as part of an inter-affirmative therapeutic approach. The article examines the writings of key proponents the German-speaking extreme right, with the understanding that many of these interphobic ideas hold true for society at large. By analysing seven interphobic strategies used by the extreme right, we understand how their narratives about intersex people continue to propagate a two-sex hegemony. The seven strategies are: ignore, deny, pathologise, employ paternalism, conjure up the polarity of man and woman, make direct attacks, and functionalise completely different issues to further their political agenda. The article explores the intrinsic entanglement of interphobia with racism, antisemitism, nationalism, social Darwinism, two-sex ideology, heterosexism, cissexism, and sexism and it is also a reconstruction of relevant discourses in sexology, psychology, and gender studies. I advocate for an understanding of human development that is non-hierarchical and therefore does not value any particular expression of human bodies over any other. Pathologisation and ‘fixing’ is contraindicated to healing and resilience, and if therapy is to be inter-affirmative, it needs to accurately reflect the interphobic lived realities of clients’ lives.