Social Darwinism
E1405
Social Darwinism is a 19th-century social theory that applied Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection to human societies, often to justify economic inequality, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| social Darwinism | 5 |
| Social Darwinism canonical | 4 |
| White Man's Burden ideology | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11672 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Social Darwinism Context triple: [The Gospel of Wealth, influencedBy, Social Darwinism]
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A.
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is a landmark 1975 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that founded the modern field of sociobiology by applying evolutionary theory to the study of social behavior in animals and humans.
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B.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for the unification of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities into a single, coherent framework of knowledge.
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C.
Hegemony or Survival
Hegemony or Survival is a political analysis book by Noam Chomsky that critiques U.S. foreign policy and argues that American pursuit of global dominance threatens both democracy and human survival.
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D.
The Gospel of Wealth
The Gospel of Wealth is an 1889 essay by industrialist Andrew Carnegie that argues the rich have a moral obligation to distribute their fortunes for the benefit of society.
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E.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a 19th-century English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology and our understanding of life on Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Social Darwinism Target entity description: Social Darwinism is a 19th-century social theory that applied Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection to human societies, often to justify economic inequality, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism.
-
A.
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis is a landmark 1975 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that founded the modern field of sociobiology by applying evolutionary theory to the study of social behavior in animals and humans.
-
B.
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge
Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge is a 1998 book by biologist Edward O. Wilson that argues for the unification of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities into a single, coherent framework of knowledge.
-
C.
Hegemony or Survival
Hegemony or Survival is a political analysis book by Noam Chomsky that critiques U.S. foreign policy and argues that American pursuit of global dominance threatens both democracy and human survival.
-
D.
The Gospel of Wealth
The Gospel of Wealth is an 1889 essay by industrialist Andrew Carnegie that argues the rich have a moral obligation to distribute their fortunes for the benefit of society.
-
E.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was a 19th-century English naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection revolutionized biology and our understanding of life on Earth.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
19th-century social theory
ⓘ
ideology ⓘ social theory ⓘ |
| appliesConceptOf |
natural selection
ⓘ
struggle for existence ⓘ survival of the fittest ⓘ |
| associatedWithConcept |
biological determinism
ⓘ
blaming the poor for poverty ⓘ competition between groups ⓘ competition between individuals ⓘ competition between nations ⓘ meritocratic explanations of wealth ⓘ racial hierarchy ⓘ |
| basedOnIdeasOf | Charles Darwin ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Christian social thinkers
ⓘ
modern biologists ⓘ progressive reformers ⓘ socialists ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
ethical implications
ⓘ
justifying exploitation ⓘ misapplying biological theory to society ⓘ scientific racism ⓘ |
| emergedInCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| emergedInContextOf |
industrial capitalism
ⓘ
laissez-faire economics ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
fitness defined as economic success
ⓘ
social selection ⓘ |
| hasKeyProponent |
Herbert Spencer
ⓘ
William Graham Sumner ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Darwinism
ⓘ
Herbert Spencer’s philosophy ⓘ Thomas Malthus’s population theory ⓘ |
| notEndorsedBy | Charles Darwin ⓘ |
| popularInCountry |
Germany
ⓘ
United Kingdom ⓘ United States of America ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| popularInPeriod |
early 20th century
ⓘ
late 19th century ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
eugenics movement
ⓘ
imperialist ideology ⓘ laissez-faire capitalism ⓘ scientific racism ⓘ |
| usedToJustify |
class hierarchy
ⓘ
colonialism ⓘ economic inequality ⓘ eugenics ⓘ imperialism ⓘ laissez-faire capitalism ⓘ minimal state intervention ⓘ social inequality ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Social Darwinism Description of subject: Social Darwinism is a 19th-century social theory that applied Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural selection to human societies, often to justify economic inequality, competition, and laissez-faire capitalism.
Referenced by (10)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
White Man's Burden ideology
this entity surface form:
social Darwinism
this entity surface form:
social Darwinism
this entity surface form:
social Darwinism
this entity surface form:
social Darwinism
this entity surface form:
social Darwinism