After pursuing his university education at Edinburgh and Cambridge, Charles Darwin spent five years on the HMS Beagle as chief naturalist on a scientific expedition that explored the South Pacific and the western coast of South America. Darwin observed the bewildering variety of nature and began to speculate on how millions of species of plants and animals had come into existence. On his return to England, he developed his theory of evolution, basing his hypothesis on his own formidable biological knowledge, recent discoveries in geology, work on the selective breeding of plants and animals, and the suggestion of several authors that competition was the norm for all living things. In 1859, he published his theories in On the Origin of Species, followed in 1871 by The Descent of Man (you can read excerpts from both by clicking here).Once you have read the documents, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: What does Darwin mean by the terms struggle for existence and natural selection? How does Darwin defend himself from religiously motivated attacks on his work? What were some implications of Darwin’s work for nineteenth-century views of progress? Of nature? Of human nature? Defenders of laissez-faire capitalism sometimes drew upon Darwinian concepts in their arguments against socialism. Which concepts might they have used? Similarly, Darwinian concepts were used to defend militarism and late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism (empire building and domination). Which of Darwin’s theories might have proved useful in such a defense? Your thoughts…
10 comments:
he defends it in terms of religion in that it's just apart of the cycle, almost like growing up, like evolution is like maturation. he also talks about how humans have been found to be "barbaric," so those who do not want to believe in the animals roots of humans must accept that it is in our nature to not always be "civilized."
Darwin sees man as a creation from some low organism that developed, i think he is trying to say that while people are given a limited amount of resources there is going to be competition among people, and only the successful move on (dog eat dog world) Darwin referred to this competition as the "struggle for existence".
i think that darwins theory that only the best prevails can used used militarily in the sense that there is a greater power presides over a smaller power (big fish eats small fish) but it is natural and in the course waiting to happen
We talked about Darwin in biology last year, include his whole thesis and everything. Coach Johnson said On the Origin of Species is a cure for insomnia :]
He's saying that the individuals with better qualities will survive, and pass these traits onto their offspring.
He says that animals produce more offspring than necessary so that a higher amount of them will survive than die. He says that if every offspring from each animal survived, the earth would become over populated and would not be able to support all of them. But, because of natural selection, not all of them survive.
People could use these theories by saying that the people in power got to power because they are the fittest, and the people under them are weaker than them, so they disserve to be in charge of them.
i agree with alina. the principles of darwin are almost like growing up, maturation. survival of the fittest is basically saying the best and most beastly person will overcome the little wimpey people. you could use this to show empires as they rule. Britain, the strongest and most powerful, would over come say a Swedish government. he makes complete sense and the fact that he was a genius to come up with this evovling idea says alot.
I think that Darwins theories make sense. He is just basically saying that there is only a certain amount of limiting resources in the world and the best desereve those resources and therefore will survive and reproduce. I can relate these theories in everyday life if they have the mind set that not everyone is going to survive and be the best so you have to work hard and the ones that succeed will be rewarded and be offered the best possible jobs out there.
I had no idea that Darwin's work also has economic and political thoughts. I just assumed that he was all about science. The way that natural selection and capitalism have the same ideas is really obvious, epecially how it is survival of the fittest. It all makes sense. Also the fact that if there is overpopulation, natural selection will take care of it. If there are too many of the same industry, the strongest will prevail.
Darwin talks of everything in the beginning as "The Survival of The Fittest" and evolution really was just natural selection. He starts to go saying that humans are the same, and that we compete too, that we have the tendency to expand and expand until the land gets overpopulated, and then occurs a problem. We are the lucky ones that got out and alive out of this problem, saying we also did natural selection, getting the best of the best, and out came we. He says we were all barbarians at first, but the best only came on top, and won over the competition. The modern day is the same he says
One of the main term in his The origin of species was the survival of the fittest and how there will always be competition among humans. I agree with blake in how alot of his theories on how bigger organism will kill smaller organism is like military strategy. That a bigger military will crush a small military. I did not know that this was as political as it is scientific.
The whole concept of "survival of the fittest" fits perfectly with humans. We fight battles and engage in wars for our benefit. But survival of the fittest refers to animals. If there was a better word to describe the competition, it would be to say the survival of the "smartest." Humans dont engage in hand to hand combat, we use technology such as guns, spears, shields, etc. The army with the most advanced technology wins.
Darwin's belief in survival of the fittest really related to capitalist ideas of Adam Smith in the competition sense of things. When humans compete in businesses to survive and prosper, it's a fight in quality along with costs just like skilled animals breed with skilled animals in the process of natural selection giving the offspring a new edge over others of its kind.
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