"Social Darwinism" 7 



This view of the theory of selection is not an 

 isolated interpretation ; on the contrary it is the 

 view held by the great majority of the authorities 

 on the Darwinian theory, with a few exceptions, as 

 well as by the immense body of popular opinion 

 which follows the view of these authorities. We 

 live in a world of struggle, and man is a fighting 

 animal, say the adherents of this view. 



We must therefore resign ourselves to the fact 

 of struggle as one of the laws of life, as one of the 

 hard facts of existence in a world governed by the 

 law of the survival of the fittest, where the weakest 

 goes to the wall and all life is but a life of battle. 

 War is held to be a part of this great law of 

 evolution, which runs throughout the universe, 

 and however much we may regret the horrors and 

 the suffering which it brings in its train, we must 

 recognize that war is the cause of social progress. 



The eminent Russian sociologist, Novikov, has 

 defined "social Darwinism" as "the doctrine that 

 collective homicide is the cause of the progress of 

 the human race." The name, as we shall see later, 

 is unjust to Darwin. A more accurate description 

 of this doctrine would be "distorted social Dar- 

 winism." But the doctrine itself, which Novikov 

 defines in such paradoxical terms, is a basic part of 

 the teaching associated with the names of some 

 of the most eminent sociologists. 



Before beginning the critical study of the doc- 

 trine, it may be well to show by quotations from 

 the writings of scientific men, sociologists, and 



