Social Darwinism projected industrial class competition onto evolution, not Darwin’s idea.

Evidence

Because the phrase is so well known, some readers may be surprised to know that Darwin never wrote “survival of the fittest.” This term was coined by British philosopher Herbert Spencer (who, incidentally, also first used the term “evolution”) in applying Darwin’s ideas to topics he himself did not address. The “survival of the fittest” concept had several effects. First, it naturalized competition as part of a “struggle for existence.” In the process, it detoured from Darwin’s ideas; Organisms do not consciously “struggle” in this way—they do not know if a mutation has taken place that may require millennia to become widespread in their species. They are simply born, live, and die, and pass on whatever was in their genes. This idea of competition grew out of and had more application to the burgeoning industrialization and class divisions that were occurring in Britain than it did to Darwin’s idea of natural selection. A second and related effect was to justify genocide and colonization (the dash to carve up Africa culminated in the Berlin Conference of 1884, when Europeans sat around tables and drew lines on maps to delimit “their” possessions, and the “taming” of the American West took place at the same time), and to undermine any suggestion of social welfare for the poor in Europe. That people were not as well off as those (whites) with the most resources was taken as evidence that they were not as “fit,” nor deserving. This Social Darwinism helped define as “natural” the hierarchy of races that had been constructed and classified through the discourses of science. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1160

Categorization

• CANDY: Darwin never wrote ‘survival of the fittest’ — Spencer coined it — is a perfect light, tweetable correction with real bite.
• SEED: Teaching angle: using the Spencer misattribution to show students how a borrowed slogan can naturalize competition and class hierarchy far beyond its source theory.
• XREF: Links to eco-justice thread that meritocracy and competition are naturalized rather than chosen — see ch12 meritocracy claim. — connects to: Darwinian evolution does not entail that animal life is ruthlessly competitive — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 236; Evolutionist doctrines translated middle-class ambition into biological race hierarchy; Gilded Age social Darwinism and ‘network effects’ both excuse capitalist concentration as fate — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 340

Broader Connections

• Darwinian evolution does not entail that animal life is ruthlessly competitive #corroborates (0.92) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 236
• Gilded Age social Darwinism and ‘network effects’ both excuse capitalist concentration as fate #expands (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 340
• Evolutionist doctrines translated middle-class ambition into biological race hierarchy #complicates (0.75)