What Were Some of the Ways Charles Darwin's 1859 Book

Question

Examlex · Accepted Answer

The Answer is Answer would ideally include:
- Charles Darwin's Ideas: Darwin's book,published in 1859,argued that all creatures struggle to survive and that,when individual members of a species are born with random genetic mutations that better suit them for their environment,these characteristics become dominant in future generations.Darwin did not use the word evolution because he believed that it implied upward progress.In his view,natural selection was a blind process;environments and species changed randomly.
- Social Darwinism: Nineteenth-century social theorists like Herbert Spencer borrowed Darwin's ideas to create a theory that human society also advanced through the process of "survival of the fittest." In America,it was championed by Yale sociologist William Graham Sumner,who argued that millionaires were clearly the fittest because their success showed that they were "naturally selected." As such,Social Darwinist ideas rationalized the impact of industrialization on American society,particularly its negative impact on the working class,and reinforced racial segregation and discrimination,and restrictions on immigration.
- Eugenics: Some also misapplied Darwinist ideas to reproductive science,arguing that mentally deficient people and anyone deemed unfit should be prevented from reproducing.Advocates of eugenics successfully enacted eugenics laws in about half of the states and,by the time the movement subsided in the 1930s,more than 20,000 Americans had been involuntarily sterilized.Eugenics had a broad impact on public policy as well.Its ideas influenced segregation,racial discrimination,and immigration restriction.

What Were Some of the Ways Charles Darwin's 1859 Book

Definitions: