<P> The simpler aspects of social Darwinism followed the earlier Malthusian ideas that humans, especially males, require competition in their lives in order to survive in the future . Further, the poor should have to provide for themselves and not be given any aid . However, amidst this climate, most social Darwinists of the early twentieth century actually supported better working conditions and salaries . Such measures would grant the poor a better chance to provide for themselves yet still distinguish those who are capable of succeeding from those who are poor out of laziness, weakness, or inferiority . </P> <P> "Social Darwinism" was first described by Oscar Schmidt of the University of Strasbourg, reporting at a scientific and medical conference held in Munich in 1877 . He noted how socialists, although opponents of Darwin's theory, used it to add force to their political arguments . Schmidt's essay first appeared in English in Popular Science in March 1879 . There followed an anarchist tract published in Paris in 1880 entitled "Le darwinisme social" by Émile Gautier . However, the use of the term was very rare--at least in the English - speaking world (Hodgson, 2004)--until the American historian Richard Hofstadter published his influential Social Darwinism in American Thought (1944) during World War II . </P> <P> Hypotheses of social evolution and cultural evolution were common in Europe . The Enlightenment thinkers who preceded Darwin, such as Hegel, often argued that societies progressed through stages of increasing development . Earlier thinkers also emphasized conflict as an inherent feature of social life . Thomas Hobbes's 17th century portrayal of the state of nature seems analogous to the competition for natural resources described by Darwin . Social Darwinism is distinct from other theories of social change because of the way it draws Darwin's distinctive ideas from the field of biology into social studies . </P> <P> Darwin, unlike Hobbes, believed that this struggle for natural resources allowed individuals with certain physical and mental traits to succeed more frequently than others, and that these traits accumulated in the population over time, which under certain conditions could lead to the descendants being so different that they would be defined as a new species . </P>

The concept of survival of the fittest being applied to human society was introduced by