Why did social Darwinism decline in the 20th century?

Social Darwinism. Soon, some sociologists and others were taking up words and ideas which Darwin had used to describe the biological world, and they were adopting them to their own ideas and theories about the human social world. read more

Social Darwinism was used during the latter portion of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century as a biological justification to further the aims of laissez-faire capitalism, immigration control, eugenics, colonialism and, in one its most extreme applications, Nazism. read more

Social Darwinism declined during the 20th century as an expanded knowledge of biological, social, and cultural phenomena undermined, rather than supported, its basic tenets. read more

"Hofstadter did not invent the term Social Darwinism", Foner writes, "which originated in Europe in the 1860s and crossed the Atlantic in the early twentieth century. read more