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Example research essay topic: Theory Of Evolution Voyage Of The Beagle - 1,771 words

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... osopher Herbert Spencer. A school of thought led by Spencer, an influential contemporary of Darwin's, held that some people were naturally superior to others, and that the perfection of the species required that the inferior ones bite the dust, leaving the future of humanity to their betters. This theory merged conveniently with aspects of nineteenth-century capitalism to justify economic policies sacrificing social welfare in favor of rampant capitalism and the rich getting richer. Traces of that thinking persist in one form or another to this day. To Spencer, Evolution was not only a theory of species, but also one that applied every aspect of reality.

Spencer argued that everything went through a progressive development. Everything from the solar system to animal species and human society were the end result of evolutionary progress. Human products, such as art, science, industry, and language, also evolved, going from the lower, homogeneous stages to ever increasing differentiation. Simplicity and uniformity give way to heterogeneity and "individuation. " This was an inevitable and good process that functioned best when left largely undisturbed, Spencer believed, so he advocated an extreme form of laissez-faire government.

Some might suffer along the way-indeed, it was inevitable that they would suffer-but the outcome was for the greater social good, the overall improvement of mankind and society. It was a view of life reminiscent of the Protestant perspective of previous generations. Worldly success had been accepted as evidence of goodness or divine approval. Now that a scientific rather than a religious standard was to be met, worldly success was obviously an indicator of Darwinian fitness and genetic superiority. The poor and the working classes, which lived in poverty and misery, suffered because they were made of inferior genetics. Their struggles were simply the manifestation of nature's plan, of natural selection, and to interfere was to doom the society, the race, or even the species as a whole.

Society and the economy would be led by those most fit to lead, those who had been selected over long generations of superior performance, and it was absurd to contemplate any rapid of profound changes. The ideal meshed neatly with the long-standing practice of judging a new acquaintance by inquiring after his or her family; if you knew someone's "people, " it was believed, you knew what tendencies and personality traits that individual was likely to have inherited. Of course Spencer's ideas certainly must have evolved from those of Malthus and the mathematical certainties of overpopulation followed by mass death, If the unfit, lower classes persisted in breeding, they would reap the inevitable consequences of their imprudence. He actually believed that the poor probably deserved to starve, but allowed that a minimum of charity so benefited the character of the donors that it would probably do no lasting harm. (Shipman, PG. 108) Prior to the genocide of German Jews and the enslavement of African Americans, American Indians were being discriminated against under the assumption that they were less evolved wild animals. Many Europeans disregarded them as animals without souls.

Thus, making it acceptable to displace, enslave, and even kill them. If they were animals, why should they be treated any different than oxen? European whites believed that it was the will of god that their superior race, made in god's image, should seize and occupy the land in America. The scientific attack on the Indian as inferior and expendable, which thrived from 1830 to 1850, gave many Americans the authoritative backing they needed for long assumed beliefs (Horsman 190). Frontiersmen were as pleased to accept the scientific condemnation of the American Indians as slave owners were to accept scientific attacks on the blacks. The dominant scientific position by the 1840 s was that the American Indians were doomed because of innate inferiority, that they were succumbing to a superior race, and that this was for the good of America and the world.

The extermination of American Indians was viewed as acceptable because it followed the widespread intellectual view that the replacement of an inferior race by a superior one was fulfillment of the laws of science and nature. Consider this story about Indigenous Americans and the voyage of The Beagle. The history of Jemmy Button and his compatriots Fuegia Basket, York Minster, and Boat Memory exemplifies the nineteenth-century Englishman's view of the humanness (of lack thereof) of different races. Jemmy Button and the others were members of the Yahgan or the Alacaluf, two hunting and gathering tribes that eked precarious livings out of the marine coast of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America.

Encountered on a voyage of the Beagle previous to Darwin's, these four Indians were removed from their families and homes and transported to England by Captain FitzRoy. FitzRoy had initially seized the two adult men, York Minster and Boat Memory, as hostages after numerous episodes of thievery and assault. Fuegia Basket, About nine Years old, had been apparently abandoned by her parents, and Jemmy Button, a youth, came aboard voluntarily out of curiosity. FitzRoy soon decided to take them back to England as curiosities, a course of action unthinkable if they were sentient humans like himself. FitzRoy's hope was that, once these Indians spoke English and had seen the wonders of the civilized world, their return to their native environment might spark a lively and profitable trade, His high handed kidnapping was neither unique nor shocking.

One of the four Indians died of smallpox and the others learned only rudimentary English. Three years after their departure, Jemmy, Fuegia, and York returned to Tierra del Fuego on the Beagle with Darwin; Richard Matthews accompanied them. Horrified by the savagery of the people, among whom he found himself, he feared for his life and begged to be taken aboard again. His perception of danger probably right, Some twenty years later, in November of 1859, Jemmy and several hundred Yahgans brutally massacred a group of English missionaries during a hymn service. The assault followed months of classic, cross-cultural misunderstandings and conflicts, The event was half a world away in terms of behavior.

When the tale of this dreadful carnage in South America reached the ears of a shocked and Victorian England, the moral was clear. Darwin might say that humans had evolved, but here was proof positive that such primitive creatures as Jemmy were barely human at all. (Shipman, PG. 25) Racism is a deep-rooted evil. For centuries racial inferiority has been professed by scientists, Written into law by politicians, and worst of all, race inferiority has been taught in schools. Racism has been taught in public schools as well as at the university level. It was professed by Yale Professor, William Graham Sumner, that people were biologically, and more important morally unequal. Natural selection must be left to take its course, he maintained, and he felt a deep animosity for the social meddlers who were always trying to help the unfit.

Poverty was simply the natural result of innate inferiority and a lack of thrift, industry, honesty, and sobriety. To alleviate it was to encourage bad behavior, to foster the spread of undesirable traits in the population, and to burden unfairly those who had succeeded through hard work. The only justifiable role for government was to defend the property of men and the honor of women. Natural selection might be harsh, Sumner believed, but it was just, He once quipped that the only alternative to survival of the fittest was survival of the unfit (Shipman 110). Evolution, like any other scientific theory, is simply an attempt to explain observed natural phenomena.

People who do use the Theory of Evolution to support their own political agendas are simply trying to add a stamp of authority to their offensive prejudices. Basically, racists will latch onto anything if it appears to support their views. You find racist Christians using the Bible to "prove" that blacks are inferior to whites (e. g. God cursed the children of Ham and turned their skin black, therefore all blacks are cursed by God), or trying to use evolution to scientifically "prove" the same thing (e. g.

God created the white "race" in His image, but blacks evolved from monkeys). Their ideas cannot stand up on their own, so they must try to find some well-known respectable ideas that appear to back them up. There is not really such a thing as "race." We are all members of one species. The genetic differences between, Nelson Mandela, Louis Farrakhan and Bill Clinton are insignificant. Go back up your family tree a few dozen generations and you are probably related to most people in your town. Back a few hundred and you " re related to most people in your country.

Back a few thousand and you are a cousin of everyone on your continent. Goback far enough and it's easy to see that every human on the planet is related. Blacks, whites, browns, yellows and reds did not all evolve separately. We are all descended from common ancestors. Keep going. Back several thousand more generations and you " re related to all the mammals on the planet, from rats to whales.

Back more and you are a cousin of all vertebrates. The theory of evolution tells us how things work, not how we should treat each other. People who try to use religion or science to discriminate against others do so simply because, on their own, their beliefs can not stand up to any scrutiny. Accepting the theory of evolution does not mean that you have to start killing people of a different color, homosexuals, the physically or mentally disabled or people who disagree with your beliefs. Accepting the theory of evolution is simply a case of understanding the world as it really is.

The theory of evolution should encourage people to have more respect for each other. Someone is not inferior to you because they have a different skin color or slightly different facial characteristics. You are directly, if distantly, related to them. All this stuff that people come out with, like "Well, I'm not a racist, but it's a known fact that blacks have smaller brains. " is simply nonsense.

It's a fact that blacks have darker skin than whites. Bibliography: Bibliography Shipman, Pat. The Evolution of Racism: Human Differences and the Use and Abuse of Science. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

Jordon, Winthrop D. White over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968. Spencer, Herbert. The Data Of Ethics. New York: P. F.

Collier and Son. Horsman, Reginald. Race and Manifest Destiny. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.


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