Charles Darwin and Francis Galton are the major psychologists that defend this theory. B.F Skinner and John Watson strongly oppose their theories and say that it is the exact opposite. Charles Darwin uses his theory of natural selection, which proposed that heritable characteristics that provide a survival or reproductive advantage are more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations and thus come to be selected over time, to prove that genetics control how a person behaves. Furthermore, Francis Galton, a relative of Darwin, stated that the class that you were born into was a genetic predisposition, and that you would not be able to rise from this standard. For example, if a lower class man and woman have a child then their child would not be able to rise form the lower class.
Political ideas associated with racial superiority and inferiority were first ‘scientifically’ justified after Charles Darwin’s seminal text The Origin of Species in which he stated that a ‘struggle’ existed between individuals within a species. Darwin saw his theories as a reason for man to be humble and he stated that man was directly related to animals, however others had different interpretations. The philosopher Herbert Spencer argued and coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’, he believed no society should interfere with the competitive laws of nature, which ultimately became a pseudo – scientific basis for the European powers to expand their empires. Spencer popularised the idea of ‘social Darwinism’, which was the major ‘scientific’ method employed by the European powers in the late 19th Century. Although there was no justification for asserting that one race was intellectually superior to another, the imperialists assumed that special aptitudes were inherent in the mental make-up of the white European.
As one of the most acclaimed philosophers in history, Aristotle felt as though everything exists for a reason, with a hierarchy of existence, as the less rational should serve the more rational. Immanuel Kant added on to Aristotle’s philosophy, by insisting that animals are incapable of rationale, and so they may be viewed as purely means to an end, with man representative of that end. The western tradition and system of beliefs was rocked at its foundations however, by various modern discoveries. Darwin began the questioning of the hierarchy of life, when he concluded that human beings were animals as well, possessing a natural origin, similar to that of the animal world. Darwin believed that differences between humans and animals were not that of kind, but of degree.
Lamarck- Lived from 1744-1829. Remembered for the incorrect proposals to explain how evolution occurs. By comparing living species with fossil forms, he had found what appeared to be several lines of descent; each differed by age and time. His two key principles are use and disuse, which was the idea that parts of the body that are used more become stronger and larger, and inheritance of acquired characteristics, which stated that an organism could pass these modifications to its offspring. Also though that evolution happens because organisms have an innate drive to become more
The French naturalist Geoffroy St. Hilaire would champion another version of evolutionary change in the 1820s, and the British writer Robert Chambers would author a best-selling argument for evolution in 1844: Vestiges of a Natural Creation. And in 1859, Charles Darwin would publish the Origin of Species. Lamarck, St. Hilaire, Chambers, and Darwin all had radically different ideas about how evolution operates, but only Darwin's still have scientific currency today.Darwin relied on much the same evidence for evolution that Lamarck did (such as vestigial structures and artificial selection through breeding), but made completely different arguments from Lamarck. Darwin did not accept an arrow of complexity driving through the history of life. He argued that complexity evolved simply as a result of life adapting to its local conditions from one generation to the next, much as modern biologists see this process.
How would a communist answer Martin’s “Four Subsidiary Philosophical Questions”—ontological, epistemological, axiological, and teleological questions? Ontological Question “The Communist vision is the vision of man without God.” (Chamber, 1987) Therefore, it is my belief that a communist would answer the ontological question, “who am I? How do we exist?” by stating that he is the source of his creation not God, denying the supernatural power. Chambers states “It is the vision of man once more the central figure of the Creation, not because God made man in his image, but because man’s mind makes him the most intelligent of the animals” (Chambers, 1987). A communist answer would be that he is a material being considered as non-supernatural.
Darwins dangerous idea was that he asked the question who created life, and his response was that no one did which in it's nature denies the supernatural explanation of the universe. Darwin focused on the idea of natural selection which presents the theory of evolution. the danger of his ideas were that they defied common sense, previously held religious beliefs and contradicted the bible.
Inverse to Puritan and Calvinist faith, deism favored science over the bible, something that would have been shunned a century before. They refused to accept Jesus’s divinity, but acknowledged a transcendent entity that created the known universe. This entity trusted the morality of man to keep the world from becoming unglued. Deism led to the creation of Unitarianism, one of the new religions during this time period. Unitarianists believed that God manifested himself in only one person instead of the orthodox Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit).
100113189 To what extent did the Variability Hypothesis demonstrate the use and misuse of science in Psychology? The Variability Hypothesis is the idea that men show a great range of variability in both physical and intellectual abilities as oppose to women who are all very much the same (Hall 1904). Jastrow 1896; Hall; 1904 suggested that there are inherent intellectual and physical differences between men and women (Shields, 1982). Leta Hollingworth (1913) referred to this as ‘armchair dogma’ a term used to describe the kind of passive beliefs that helped to sustain this hypothesis. According to Hollingworth objective scientific investigation was lacking for the assertions made by the variability hypothesis (Benjamin, 1975).
His book, The Origin of Species, was published in 1859, and stated that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. This book was controversial because it contradicted the religious beliefs that underlay the then current theories of biology. Darwin’s theory says that in species that sexually reproduce, no two individuals will be identical. A lot of this variety in offspring is inheritable, and may affect ones ability to survive in a given environment. He says that those who are less adapted to their environment will have less of a chance of surviving and less likely to reproduce.