The Role Of Social Darwinism In American Thought

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Should the tortoise really have beaten the hare? Not according to Darwin it shouldn’t. The hare has been naturally selected and the tortoise has been deemed “unfit”. Has Darwinism really justified brutal self-assertion and the neglect of the weak and the poor? Does it mean that progress must be dependent upon the ruthless elimination of the unfit, in an expanding population forever pressing upon the bounds of survival?[1] Or can the unfit overcome the naturally selected, as in the case of the tortoise and the hare? Charles Darwin presented his findings in the world renowned book, The Origin of Species. Its full title actually being On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, is more of a complete…show more content…
Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955. Sumner, William Graham. Social Darwinism. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1963. Thames, Mark. Sophie's Reader. Mason: Thomson, 2007. Wilson, David Sloan. Evolution For Everyone. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007. ----------------------- [1] Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, 85 [2] Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie's World. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007, 403 [3] Thames, Mark. Sophie's Reader. Mason: Thomson, 2007, 367 [4] Thames, Mark. Sophie's Reader. Mason: Thomson, 2007, 366 [5] Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, 16 [6] Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, pg.173 [7] Wilson, David Sloan. Evolution For Everyone. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007, pg. 17 [8] Wilson, David Sloan. Evolution For Everyone. New York: Bantam Dell, 2007, pg. 17 [9] Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, pg. 95 [10] Hofstadter, Richard. Social Darwinism in American Thought. Boston: Beacon Press, 1955, pg.

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