darwin on social darwinism.....?

Question

i have been trying to research what darwins belief on natural selection within humans was- however, after doing research on wikipedia and yahoo answers, all the answers seem to complex to get the main idea on

can someone in like at most a short paragraph (8 sentences or so) explain whether darwin felt one could extent this theory of natural selection to humans or whatever he felt on the subject, thanks.

Answer 1

There are two different things.

Yes, Darwin believed that natural selection applied to humans as well. In other words, humans, as a *biological* species, are just as much a product of natural selection and "descent with modification" from earlier ancestors, as any other biological species.

But that is not social darwinism.

Social darwinism is the application of the ideas of natural selection to human *social* behavior (not biological origins). Now, Darwin was indeed influenced by some early ideas of social competition from such people as his cousin Francis Galton. But Darwin used these as an inspiration only ... i.e. while it is debatable whether these processes apply to human social behavior, they clearly *do* apply to biology ... i.e. to competition between individual members of a species where those individuals are not bound by any moral restrictions. (I.e. a male walrus doesn't have any moral qualms about beating the crap out of other males in order to mate with lots of females.) Since Darwin, others (not Darwin) have tried to extend natural selection back into the social arena, including in extreme cases, truly misguided ideas like racialism, eugenics, imperialism, and genocide. These are most certainly NOT ideas that Darwin held, and are in fact a total perversion of darwinism.

Answer 2

no Darwin did not mean it; but I think there is much Darwinism in social life!