Social Darwinism - Definitions from Dictionary.com

3 results for: Social Darwinism

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

Social Darwinism

–noun Sociology.

a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.

Also, social Darwinism.

[Origin: 1885–90

]

—Related forms

Social Darwinist, social Darwinist.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Social Darwinism

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

social Darwinism
n. The application of Darwinism to the study of human society, specifically a theory in sociology that individuals or groups achieve advantage over others as the result of genetic or biological superiority.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
social Darwinism

A theory arising in the late nineteenth century that the laws of evolution, which Charles Darwin had observed in nature, also apply to society. Social Darwinists argued that social progress resulted from conflicts in which the fittest or best adapted individuals, or entire societies, would prevail. It gave rise to the slogan “survival of the fittest.”

[Chapter:] Anthropology, Psychology, and Sociology

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