Social Darwinism is a problem. there is the old joke about
Darwin after many years of searching finally found evidence of
the British social class structure in nature. The thought of
Darwin is very common among scientific and technically trained
people today. it tends to be part of the interview that nature
is converging on the kind of solution that is one that they
like. In fact, good Darwinian theory suggests that every point
evolution is open to proliferation of new forms, not a
convergence. In 1944, historian Richard Hofstadter
publishedSocial Darwinism in American Thought, an aggressive and
widely influential critique of the libertarian philosopher
Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and his impact on American
intellectual life. In Hofstadter’s telling, Spencer was the
driving force behind “social Darwinism,” the pseudo-scientific
use of evolution to justify economic and social inequality.
According to Hofstadter, Spencer was little more than an
apologist for extreme conservatism, a figure who told “the
guardian