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SOCIAL DARWINISM AND NATURAL THEODICY
Author(s) -
Oates David
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
zygon®
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.222
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-9744
pISSN - 0591-2385
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9744.1988.tb00858.x
Subject(s) - theodicy , survival of the fittest , social darwinism , darwinism , natural (archaeology) , denial , epistemology , philosophy , individualism , environmental ethics , natural selection , darwin (adl) , feeling , sociology , psychology , law , psychoanalysis , history , political science , computer science , population , demography , software engineering , archaeology , evolutionary biology , politics , biology
. Despite the harsh scientific basis of Social Darwinism, its followers strove to unify nature with humane feelings—for world views necessarily attempt such reconciliations. To answer the difficult “problem of evil” posed by natural selection and survival of the fittest, Social Darwinists such as Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Herbert Spencer resorted to three kinds of theodicy: sentimental denial of the problem, belief in progress, and belief in perfection. Spencer's writings particulary display at different times both a rigid individualism and a softer organicism. Eventually, however, T. H. Huxley would abandon the attempt, acknowledging in effect that no complete world view was possible.