European History

Science and Technology

Darwin's Theory of Evolution

In his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Charles Darwin wrote that creatures experience genetic mutations prior to birth. Some of these random mutations are beneficial, and some are not. He wrote that in the world, the creatures who are the "most fit" are most likely to survive and thus pass on their genes. This process, known as natural selection results in the strongest creatures thriving and the weak dying off.

One of the most massive results of Darwin's theory of evolution was that it was another major challenge to the Catholic Church. This, coupled with the Reformation, Renaissance, the Enlightenment and its subsequent rise of deism, and other related movements, caused the Church to lose even more influence in society.

Also, Darwin's theory led to the rise of the concept of social Darwinism, or "survival of the fittest." The theory was fathered by Herbert Spencer. Social Darwinism espoused the idea that consensual economic interaction and property rights enabled societies to progress by allowing productive members of society to flourish and unproductive members to be punished by poverty. Accordingly, the theory of social Darwinism had a large impact on classical liberal and libertarian theory. However, in non-libertarian circles, social Darwinism did not enjoy a favorable reputation, as it was perceived to have espoused apologism on behalf of the rich, while condemning the poor.

New Mental Sciences

As a result of Darwin's theory, a new group of mental sciences arose. People now began to believe that life is a struggle, and they began to try to explain these struggles. These new mental sciences supported the concepts of real politik and capitalism, and rejected the notion that life is orderly, harmonious, predictable, or reasonable.

During this time, Sigmund Freud founded what is known as the psychoanalytical school of psychology. He argued that people are not creatures of reason, as the Enlightenment suggested, but rather that people act because of subconscious motivations. He broke these motivations into three areas:

Id 

The id produces unconscious desires and is the most primitive of the three. The id desires instant gratification. Freud argued that people will use defense mechanisms and rationalization to justify acting upon the id.

Ego 

The ego is the reality principle or the conscious self. It attempts to suppress the id and its intense desires.

Superego 

The superego is a person's conscience.

Lombroso argued that you can tell criminals by their appearance. Pavlov argued that people's actions are a response to being conditioned by stimuli in an environment. Finally, Binet devised IQ tests, arguing that intelligence is a measurable quotient. As a result, eugenicists used this to try to prove that some people were more fit to live than others.