Description
Book SynopsisHunting Down Social Darwinism addresses the manner in which free-market advocacy is often criticized as social Darwinism. It explores the termâs meaning and the reasons such criticisms prove to be misleading. Hayashi examines whether it is fair to describe nineteenth-century free-market advocates Spencer and Sumner as social Darwinists.
Trade ReviewIn this ambitious work, Stuart Hayashi clearly, systematically, and accessibly articulates the secular, philosophical, and moral foundations of a free society based on the supremacy of individual rights in which each person has the opportunity to pursue his flourishing and happiness. The author explains these foundations in language that will be understandable to educated laypersons, college students, and concerned citizens who follow current political issues covered by the media. While discussing the compatibility of human nature and individual rights, he makes a compelling and unprecedented argument that particular theories from the field of evolutionary psychology are congruent with Objectivism’s views on human nature, individual rights, morality, social relationships, and the nature and rules of a proper government (i.e., a limited night watchman state). Hayashi’s book is a masterful feat of intellectual integration from various disciplines that builds on the work of Ayn Rand and other intellectual giants, past and present. -- Edward W. Younkins, Wheeling Jesuit University
Once again, Stuart Hayashi has composed a tome of epic scholarly proportions. Anyone interested in studying the fundamental dissimilarity of laissez-faire policies and Social Darwinist principles must read this book. -- Andrew Bernstein, author of The Capitalist Manifesto: The Historic, Economic and Philosophic Case for Laissez-Faire
Table of ContentsPart I: Stalking Social Darwinism Chapter 1: Did Nineteenth-Century Capitalists Want the Poor to Die? Chapter 2: The Conflation of Laissez Faire with Regulation-Imposed Eugenics Chapter 3: The Equivocation That Infects Intellectuals Chapter 4: The Camouflaging of Eugenicists as Eugenicism’s Opponents Chapter 5: Progressivism: The Genesis of Eugenics Part II: The Governism of the Third Reich Chapter 6: Is Naziism the Final Stage of Capitalism? Chapter 7: Socialism and Fascism: Close Relatives Chapter 8: The Führer versus Free Enterprise Chapter 9: They Loved Blood and Soil but Not the Mind Chapter 10: Extinction of the Social Darwinism Canard Part III: The Final Lessons of Liberty Chapter 11: The Ethologists’ Unpaid Debts to Spencer and Sumner Chapter 12: Overthrowing the Anarchists Chapter 13: Natural Liberty Requires Adherence to Truth Conclusion
