social Darwinism
1 synonym for social Darwinism, grouped by meaning and by how common each one is.
Noun — The discredited belief that Darwin's idea of natural selection applies to human society, so that wealth and power prove a group's fitness and that helping the poor or weak interferes with progress.
Synonyms
Rare, literary or technical
Precise, but they will stand out — check the sense before using one.
survival of the fittest doctrine
How to use social Darwinism
The word patterns that sound natural to a native speaker.
social Darwinist thinking
accused of social Darwinism
Almost always used critically; very few people apply the label to themselves.
Etymology
From the name of the naturalist Charles Darwin, applied to social and political theory. The label was popularised largely by the movement's critics.
Full origin of social Darwinism →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Darwinism and social Darwinism?
Darwinism is a scientific account of how species change through natural selection, and it makes no claim about how people ought to behave. Social Darwinism takes that language and misapplies it to politics and economics to justify inequality. Biologists reject the leap as a category error.
Did Charles Darwin support social Darwinism?
No. The doctrine was built by others from his vocabulary, and Darwin himself wrote about the moral importance of caring for the vulnerable. The phrase 'survival of the fittest' was coined by Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, though Darwin later adopted it.
Is social Darwinism the same as eugenics?
They overlap but differ. Social Darwinism argues that society should let the weak fail; eugenics argues that society should actively control who reproduces. Both were used to justify racism and both are rejected today.
