Social Darwinism

Question 1

Who are the three Victorian evoluntionary theorists often tied to social Darwinism.

Answer 1

• Edward Burnette Tylor
• Louis Henry Morgan
• Herbert Spencer

Question 2

Used the term “survival of the fittest” before Darwin.

Answer 2

Herbert Spencer

Question 3

Three stages of the evolutionary theory of Tylor.

Answer 3

1. Savagery
2. Barbarism
3. Civlization with Victorian England as the pinnicle of civilization.

Question 4

William Graham Sumner

Answer 4

1. Held the first professorship in sociology. First to teach a course titled sociology.
2. Anti-Imperialist who introduced the term ethnocentricism and opposed the Spanish-American war.
3. Described as a proto-libertarian.
4. Sumner was a critic of natural rights, famously arguing”Before the tribunal of nature a man has no more right to life than a rattlesnake; he has no more right to liberty than any wild beast; his right to pursuit of happiness is nothing but a license to maintain the struggle for existence…”

Question 5

Folkways?

Answer 5

Social norms followed thorugh imitation and mild social pressure. Not violently enforced.

Question 6

Thorstien Verblen

Answer 6

• Theory of the lesiure class. Saw buisness as a leech on the productive economy.
• Ideas similar to “Player Piano”
• Conspicuous Consumption-For purpose of displaying wealth only.