USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In Spencer’s day social Darwinism was invoked to justify laissez-faire economics and the minimal state, which were thought to best promote unfettered competition between individuals and the gradual improvement of society through the “survival of the fittest, ” a term that Spencer himself introduced.

Detailed explanation-2: -Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”-the idea that certain people become powerful in society because they are innately better. Social Darwinism has been used to justify imperialism, racism, eugenics and social inequality at various times over the past century and a half.

Detailed explanation-3: -Social Darwinism is a set of theories and societal practices that apply Darwin’s biological concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest to sociology, economics, and politics.

Detailed explanation-4: -Those who applied Social Darwinism to nations’ struggles believed that individual rights existed only as subordinate to national duties. They justified military conquest as the only avenue for expanding their population and resources, including land.

Detailed explanation-5: -Social Darwinists held that the life of humans in society was a struggle for existence ruled by “survival of the fittest, ” a phrase proposed by the British philosopher and scientist Herbert Spencer.