ABSTRACT
By the end of the nineteenth century, Darwin’s theory of evolution had not only become widely accepted but also had given rise to various applications outside the fi eld of biology. The relationships between members within a given society, as well as those between societies themselves, could be viewed in a Darwinian light. These notions often took as their starting point the concept of “the survival of the fi ttest,” a term coined by Herbert Spencer and by Darwin who used it (with proper acknowledgment) in later editions of On the Origin of Species and also in The Descent of Man as more apt than his earlier term “the struggle for existence.”1 Spencer had based his analysis of human society on Darwinian ideas and is therefore usually credited with being the founder of “Social Darwinism,” an ideology that provided not only a “scientifi c” basis for racism and imperialism, but also for eugenics. However, as Robert M. Young has pointed out, if social Darwinism consists in applying Darwinian theory to humanity, “then Darwin was a Social Darwinist root and branch.”2
