Darwinism Overview

History of Evolution &
Eugenics, 1859-1945
Degeneration: The Dark Side of

Progress
Before Darwin
 Where did people think the variety of
species they saw came from?
 God did it.
 Natural theology. Complex living structures
must have been designed by a wise,
benevolent deity.
 Genesis creation account. By 1830s,
geology evidence does not fit 6000-year
biblical history.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
 Beagle voyage, 1831-36
 South America, Tierra del Fuego, Galapagos
1859 On the Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection
Two theories presented in the book
1. Evolution = change in species over
time; descent with modification; new
species derived from other species;
common ancestry.
2. Natural selection = main
mechanism by which evolution occurs.
Darwin’s evidence for evolution
(species derived from common ancestry)
 Geographical
distribution & unique
adaptations (13
similar species of
Galapagos finches)
 Fossils & long
geological history.
 Vestigial organs.
 Taxonomic relations.
Argument for natural selection:
observed facts + logical deductions
 Analogy with artificial selection by breeders
of domestic animals, eg pigeons.
 Only those individuals that are best

adapted to a given environment, owing to
their inheritable traits (variations), are able
to survive and reproduce, passing on their
advantageous traits to offspring.
Key components of
natural selection
 Variation
 Competition
 Fitness
 Adaptation
Variation
 Individual members of a species have
heritable differences.
 Darwin hypothesized that these
variations are random (later term =
gene mutations).
Competition: The struggle
for existence
 Resources are fixed (food, shelter).
 Many more individuals are produced each
generation than can survive and reproduce.
 Individuals must compete for limited
resources.
 Darwin got this idea from reading Thomas
Malthus (1798), Principle of Population.
Grim doctrine of Rev. Malthus:
pressure of overpopulation. WHY?
Fitness of individuals
 Some individuals of a species have traits
(physical or behavioral) that make them
better at surviving and reproducing.
 Results in differential reproduction, or
“survival of the fittest.” The unfit perish or fail
to procreate.
 Fitness is linked to particular environment.
Adaptation of the population
 Increased percentage of individuals in
succeeding generations have the
beneficial traits.
 Results over time in a new population.
 Darwin called this “divergence,” we say
speciation.
Evolution produces diversity
Is evolution “progressive”?
Is progress guaranteed?
 Popular belief in Darwin’s day (and today)

that change is “upward” to perfection,
complexity, “best.” “Higher in the scale of
nature.”
 Even many scientists thought of evolution as

goal-directed, following linear path, not by
random mutations and selection, but instead
inheritance of acquired characters.
Conclusion of Origin
 “Thus, from the war of nature, from famine
and death, the most exalted object which we
are capable of conceiving, namely, the
production of the higher animals, directly
follows. There is grandeur in this view of life,
with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and
that…from so simple a beginning endless
forms most beautiful and most wonderful
have been, and are being, evolved.”
Evolutionary change to simpler,
lower forms: degeneration theory
 Zoologist E. Ray Lankester (1880), Degeneration: A

Chapter in Darwinism
 When environment changes such that complex

organs & habits are no longer beneficial, then the
organism “reverts.”
 “The easy life,” parasitic. “There is suppression of
form, corresponding to cessation of work.”
 Survival of the fittest where “fit” = simple.
Sea squirt (Ascidian) as example of
retrograde evolution to simplicity
Progressive evolution is the dominant
idea: upward to (white) man
 Homo sapiens
depicted as end-goal
of evolution. Perhaps
directed by God.
 Imagery of progress:
Ernst Haeckel’s 1874
pedigree of man.
Racial hierarchies justified by
evolutionary theory
Controversies over human evolution:
Did we come from animals?
Could we de-evolve?
Evolutionary anxieties
 Materialism
 Man is only ape, not angel, nothing extra.
 Darwin (1871), Descent of Man
 Naturalism
 T. H. Huxley (1863), Man’s Place in Nature
 Science explains all, no need for religion.
 Alfred Russel Wallace rejects this, believes in
supernatural origins of mind.
 Evolutionary ethics
 Social Darwinism
Evolutionary ethics
 Darwin argues that even human intelligence,
moral sense, and religious sentiments have
evolved from animal instincts. A cooperative
(ethical) population survives and flourishes.
 Huxley rejects this in 1893 lecture “Evolution

and Ethics.” Says that natural selection is an
immoral process of competition & destruction.
Humans became moral only by overthrowing
our animal instincts in civilized societies,
where we help the weak.
Social Darwinism as human
survival of the fittest
 The human species achieved its evolutionary
success & abilities by the action of natural
selection.
 Cruel, rigorous weeding out of the inferior

individuals and races.
 Becomes scientific justification for laissez-

faire capitalism, opposition to social welfare,
etc. (Herbert Spencer)
Darwin (1871) Descent of Man
“With savages, the weak in body & mind
are soon eliminated; and those that
survive commonly exhibit a vigorous
state of health. We civilized men, on the
other hand, do our utmost to check the
process of elimination; we build
asylums for the imbecile, the maimed,
and the sick…. Thus the weak members
of societies propagate their kind….”
“…No one who has attended to the
breeding of domestic animals will doubt
that this must be highly injurious to the
race of man. It is surprising how want
of care leads to the degeneration of a
domestic race; but excepting in the
case of man himself, hardly any one is
so ignorant as to allow his worst
animals to breed.”
Suspension of natural
selection in modern societies
 “Coddling” the unfit with charity, social reforms,
health care, poorhouse, etc.
 Is progress guaranteed? Could we revert?
 Late-19th-century degeneration fears

 Cultural decadence
 National decline, military failures
 Social ills, poverty, unrest, crime
 Alcoholism, immorality, laziness
 Mental illness & growth of the asylum

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History of Evolution &

Degeneration: The Dark Side of

 Only those individuals that are best

 Popular belief in Darwin’s day (and today)

 Even many scientists thought of evolution as

 Zoologist E. Ray Lankester (1880), Degeneration: A

 When environment changes such that complex

 Huxley rejects this in 1893 lecture “Evolution

 Cruel, rigorous weeding out of the inferior

 Becomes scientific justification for laissez-

 Is progress guaranteed? Could we revert?

 Late-19th-century degeneration fears

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