Charles Darwin Research Paper

Kevin Grace

WOH 1030

Charles Darwin: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

The lines of history textbooks are filled with thousands of names of people who have influenced the world in fantastic ways. Some of these names, many people have never heard, while others are household names such as Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin. One of the most notable names is a man who created a seismic shift in the way people view the world unlike anything else, and he is easily my favorite scientist who has ever lived. This man is Charles Darwin. Darwin’s work has heavily influenced religion, especially amongst the Catholic Church, his research has helped shape the views of social scientists and revolutionize the medical field. Charles Robert Darwin was born on

One group that would later become known at Social Darwinists would apply survival of the fittest and natural selection to the fields of sociology and politics. The idea behind Social Darwinism is that the “most fit” people should see their wealth and influence increase over time, while the least fit people would lose wealth and influence. For instance, a Social Darwinist would likely argue against government intervention in the economy as much as possible. They believe that many social matters should be left alone to sort themselves out, and everyone should act in their own self-interest, which would encourage competition. This would end with the strong coming out on top and the weak on the bottom. These types of policies usually create large gaps in the balance of power amongst anything from individuals, races, or entire nations. Social Darwinism is used to justify these gaps in that the groups that come out on top are simply the most fit and deserve to be on top. It is very easy to see Social Darwinism around today. The free market we enjoy in the US is based on very similar ideals of competition and self-interest. One place you can see Social Darwinism at work today is in the debated over the “top one percent.” During the “Occupy Wall Street” movement in 2011, some people cited Social Darwinism for the reason for the wealth gap amongst the American population, although the ideas it stands

Natural selection is sometimes referenced by racist groups, stating that one group of humans is more or less fit than another, and is therefore superior or inferior to the other races. Natural Selection was used to argue for white race superiority over non-white races, and to help justify European Imperialism. This became the birth of Reform Darwinism, which is a social policy based on survival of the fittest in political contexts. Reform Darwinism advocates for government to control human reproduction and inheritance through the use of eugenics. People such as Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin claimed that since humans are more intelligent than other organisms, we could control evolution to benefit all of human society. This type of Reform Darwinism is partly what influenced Adolf Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party into committing genocide, and how they justified it. Hitler and the Nazis set out to put Natural Selection into their own hands, to create the perfect race. By killing Jews, gypsies, the disabled, and any other groups the Nazis found to be “inferior,” they believed they would purify the human gene pool to create a master, or Aryan race. It is important to note that Darwin himself never made any implications about his theories affecting anything other than biology, but many groups of people have continued to base their views off of