Darwinism

Darwinism in economics: from analogy to ontology

Several social scientists, including ‘evolutionary economists’, have expressed scepticism of ‘biological analogies’ and rejected the application of ‘Darwinism’ to socio-economic evolution. Among this group, some have argued that self-organisation is an alternative to biological analogies orDarwinism.Others have seen ‘artificial selection’ as an alternative to natural selection in the socio-econ...

Origins of the myth of social Darwinism: The ambiguous legacy of Richard Hofstadter’s Social Darwinism in American Thought

The term “social Darwinism” owes its currency and many of its connotations to Richard Hofstadter’s influential Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (SDAT). The postSDATmeanings of “social Darwinism” are the product of an unresolvedWhiggish tension in SDAT: Hofstadter championed economic reform over free markets, but he also condemned biology in social science, this while many progres...

Neural Darwinism and Consciousness 1 RUNNING HEAD: Neural Darwinism and Consciousness Neural Darwinism and Consciousness

Neural Darwinism (ND), also called the Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (TNGS) is a biological theory of brain development and function which is based on evolutionary and developmental principles. ND highlights the importance of selectionist processes underlying these principles. The aim of this literature review is to capture and summarize the essentials of both ND and its theoretical extens...

Darwin and Darwinism: the (alleged) social implications of the origin of species.

Most scientific theories, even revolutionary ones, change the practice of a particular science but have few consequences for culture or society at large. But Darwinism, it has often been said, is different in this respect. Since the publication of The Origin of Species, many have claimed that Darwinism has a number of profound social implications. Here, I briefly consider three of these: the ec...

Darwinism and social Darwinism.

How does Darwin’s Darwinism relate to social Darwinism and eu- genics? Likemany foes ofDarwinism, past and present, theAmerican populist and creationist

How does Darwin’s Darwinism relate to social Darwinism and eugenics? Likemany foes ofDarwinism, past and present, theAmerican populist and creationist William Jennings Bryan thought a straight line ran from Darwin’s theory (‘a dogma of darkness and death’) to beliefs that it is right for the strong to crowd out the weak, and that the only hope for human improvement lay in selective breeding.1 D...