Darwin, and a Misuse
A scientific and material account
- Charles Darwin provided a scientific and material account of biological change and the development of human beings as a species.
- Material is doing specific work: the account requires no purpose and no designer.
- That is why it belongs to the objectivity pole of 7.1's tension — it explains without appealing to meaning.
'Material' in the CED's phrase means the account requires no...
Which is why it belongs to the objectivity pole of 7.1's tension.
And, inadvertently, a justification
- ...and inadvertently, a justification for racialist theories that became known as Social Darwinism.
- Inadvertently is the CED's own word, and it separates the science from the use made of it.
- So the accurate sentence is that a scientific account was taken up to justify racial hierarchy, not that it entailed one.
The CED says Darwin ____ provided a justification for racialist theories.
It separates the science from the use made of it.
Why the misuse was available
- A vocabulary of struggle, fitness and survival transfers easily to societies if nobody checks whether the transfer is valid.
- It also arrived exactly when 7.6's imperial ventures needed a justification, and 7.2's chauvinism needed a language.
- So the misuse is not a random error; it met a demand.
The science, the misuse, or the gap between?
Sort each statement about Darwin's influence.
The accurate sentence is that the science was taken up to justify hierarchy, not that it entailed one.
Description is not instruction.
'Inadvertently' is the CED's own word, and it does the crucial work. Darwin provided a scientific and material account and inadvertently a justification for racialist theories — so the accurate sentence is that the science was taken up to justify racial hierarchy, not that it entailed one.
The misuse spread partly because it...
Not a random error; it met a demand.
Keeping the two apart in an answer
- A strong response states the scientific claim, then states the social claim, then names the gap between them.
- The gap is that a description of how species change is not an instruction about how societies should be arranged.
- The CED has already done this work with one adverb; borrow it.
Put the parts of a strong answer in order.
The CED has already done this work with one word.
Scientific and social developments
- The objective is how Darwin's theories influenced scientific and social developments.
- Scientific: a material account of change that reshaped biology and the standing of scientific explanation.
- Social: Social Darwinism, which the CED marks as an inadvertent consequence and a racialist theory.
A description of how a population changes over time says nothing about which people should govern which. Getting from the first to the second requires an extra step that is never argued for, only assumed — and naming that missing step is the whole of the analysis.
Charles Darwin provided a scientific and material account of biological change and the development of human beings as a species, and inadvertently, a justification for racialist theories that became known as Social Darwinism. Material means the account needs no purpose or designer; inadvertently separates the science from the use made of it. The misuse met a demand — imperial ventures needing justification, chauvinism needing a language.