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Some supporters of Darwin's theory of evolution
have misapplied the biological principles of natural
selection -- "survival of the fittest" -- to the
social, political, and economic realms.
The idea of "social Darwinism" originated in
the class stratification of England,
and has often been used as a general term for
any evolutionary argument about the biological
basis of human differences. Drawing on social
Darwinism, supporters of the 20th-century
eugenics movement sought to "improve" human genetic
stock, much as farmers do in agriculture.
This essay examines the history of eugenics and
considers modern genetic research in the same
light, so that the lessons of history are not
forgotten.
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| Daniel
J. Kevles, a historian of science and society, is
the Stanley Woodward Professor of History at Yale
University. He has written extensively about the
social and political relations of science. His works
include In the Name of Eugenics (1995), The
Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community
in Modern America (1995), and The Baltimore
Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character
(2000). |
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Adapted with permission of Harvard University
Press from the 1995 Preface to In the Name
of Eugenics, Daniel Kevles, ix-xiii. Copyright
© 1995 by Daniel J. Kevles. (Boldface added.)
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Charles
Darwin's
theories were
adapted by
others and
applied to
social issues. |
The specter of eugenics hovers over virtually all contemporary
developments in human genetics. Eugenics was rooted in
the social Darwinism of the late 19th century, a
period in which notions of fitness, competition, and biological
rationalizations of inequality were popular. At the time,
a growing number of theorists introduced Darwinian analogies
of "survival of the fittest" into social argument.
Many social Darwinists insisted that biology was destiny,
at least for the unfit, and that a broad spectrum of socially
deleterious traits, ranging from "pauperism" to mental
illness, resulted from heredity. |
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The word "eugenics" was coined in 1883 by the English
scientist Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin,
to promote the ideal of perfecting the human race
by, as he put it, getting rid of its "undesirables"
while multiplying its "desirables" -- that is, by
encouraging the procreation of the social Darwinian
fit and discouraging that of the unfit. In Galton's
day, the science of genetics was not yet understood.
Nevertheless, Darwin's theory of evolution taught that
species did change as a result of natural selection,
and it was well known that by artificial selection a
farmer could obtain permanent breeds of plants and animals
strong in particular characteristics. Galton wondered,
"Could not the race of men be similarly improved?"
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Francis Galton
launched a
movement
for eugenics, a
"science" of
improving human
stock. |
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