Darwin

Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection was certainly a radical scientific claim. The idea that variations within a species determined their fitness for survival added a new element to the system of nature, the notion of competition and the survival of the fittest. The most interesting part of Darwin's theory is how we see it manifested in all aspects of society. Darwin proves competition's relevance in the natural world, but 19th century society had been grounded with a sense of competition for centuries. Competition defined social structures and developed the basis for capitalism and imperialism. Humans' natural impulse towards competition and securing dominance over one another is closely tied with the natural world in Darwin's theory. In the countless ways we have seen European society modernize and structure itself to command itself superior not only over nature, but over other nations, Darwin claims that all of this motion is natural occurrence. Such a claim weakens the superior stance Europeans assumed. Modernization and innovation were signs of superior success, something that alloted a greater sense of power to one country over another. But Darwin suggests that the ability to compete on such a level is not a mark of a superior European but is a natural impulse shared by all organisms on earth. Society had constructed ways to interpret competition and the rank of countries, and Darwin suggests that it must simply remain a construction, not a natural law. Darwin's studies surpassed a strictly scientific vector and challenged the way society conceived hierarchy. Society's uses of competition, for economic and political powers, were not resultant of a modernizing society. The ability to compete was not a societal invention, but rather an ability derived from the natural world.