Sociaal-darwinisme. Enkele kanttekeningen bij een meerduidig begrip

Samenvatting

Social Darwinism. Some Remarks about an Ambiguous Concept. Presents a historiographic survey of the different meanings of social Darwinism and of the different ways in which historians have used the concept. It is shown that social Darwinism was never a unified and narrowly circumscribed movement or ideology, which is hardly surprising, given that even Charles Darwin's views on the matter are hard to pin down, and that ideas on the nature of the evolutionary process have undergone considerable changes over time. It is contended that a recently published argument to the contrary, which claims that the term can be given a strict definition, is misguided and ahistorical. The approach unites thinkers who, historically speaking, had little in common and never formed a group or movement. Social Darwinism remains a convenient collective term for historians, not a clearly defined historical phenomenon. Adapted from the source document.