Sociology / Unit 1 Soc 0018 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism
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The idea
Herbert Spencer treated society as an organism whose parts each serve the whole, and argued it should be left to evolve unaided — the position later called Social Darwinism.
In practice
He coined "survival of the fittest" and used it to oppose reform, on the grounds that intervention preserved the unfit.
Where people slip
The organic analogy survives in functionalism; the political conclusion is rejected.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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