Was Darwin a Social Darwinist?

Are humans inherently selfish brutes? Skeptics and critics of evolution routinely denounce the ghastly specter of society “red in tooth and claw” as an unacceptable consequence of Darwin’s concept of natural selection. They equate Darwinism with so-called Social Darwinism, a belief in ruthless social competition and unmitigated individualism. Many evolutionists, too—even staunch defenders of Darwinism, from Thomas Henry Huxley to Michael Ruse—seem to concur that the natural history of humans leaves an ethical void. Darwin himself, by contrast, had a well-developed interpretation of the evolution of morality. Others since have deepened our biological understanding of human and cultural origins. Perhaps, then, we are ready to challenge this entrenched assumption, this sacred bovine: that belief in evolution entails forsaking any foundation for morality. Many scientists disavow any role for biology in addressing ethics. They retreat behind the shield of the fact/value distinction or invoke the threat of the fallacy of deriving values from nature. Yet morality is an observable behavior, a biological phenomenon. We might well document it in other species. For example, empathy has recently been observed in both mice and, ironically perhaps, rats. The rats will even forgo chocolate to help a cage mate escape restraint. Morality deserves a biological explanation, especially for those who wonder about the status of humans in an evolutionary context. There are important limits, of course. One does well to heed philosophers who warn that we cannot justifiably derive particular values or moral principles from mere description. Many have tried, and all have failed. “Oughts” do not arise from “ises.” Values and facts really do have different foundations. Yet why or how we can express values at all, have moral impulses, and engage in ethical arguments are all psychological or sociological realities, susceptible to analysis and interpretation. Indeed, an understanding of human evolution may well be incomplete without addressing these very important human traits. One may begin, of course, as one often does with evolutionary topics, by returning to the source: Charles Darwin. How did Darwin regard culture?