An excerpt from my upcoming essay on Society, sub-section The Instinct of Aggression and Destruction: Social Darwinism is the term that is commonly given to the social doctrine that draws from Darwinian evolution, the biological phenomenon of natural selection. The universe is a cold and uncaring place they argue, that Man’s innate instinct for aggression is not only his natural state of being but vital for his success as a species as he wrestles with all other animals and beings for survival; in brevity, survival of the fittest (or strongest). Social, or sociological, Darwinism argues that society and civilisation has made Man a decadent weakling that has dulled his killer instincts and promoted the perversity of inverting the immutable values of the universe thereby subduing the eminence of the strong. However biology does not yield any objective yardstick for the appraisal of social evolution. Yes it is true that Man has given up on many primitive abilities and left them stunted, but simultaneously he has garnered other skills no less indispensable to modern life in society such as arithmetic or computer skills. Society had granted to man a far longer lifespan; he has grown taller; the frail and elderly need not perish; he has been able to hold his own against both the beasts of prey and deleterious microbes, attaining uncontested mastery of the Earth; it has offered a means of subsistence much higher than our primitive forebears could have imagined (if at all possible): Man has easy access to an abundance of calories, water and shelter from exposure to the elements viz. housing. From the view point of natural selection, society then has definitely been of beneficence to Man and not an evil. To decry that the arts or engineering are unnatural is no more reasonable than is to demand that Man renounce his upright gait or his opposable thumbs.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 13:42:38 +0000
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