Question

What did many leading Darwinists advocate in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?

a) They advocated for the strict separation of church and state.
b) They promoted the ideas of Lamarckian evolution.
c) They supported eugenics and racial purity.
d) They opposed the theory of natural selection.

Answer 1

The correct answer is option c) They supported eugenics and racial purity.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many leading Darwinists advocated for c) supporting eugenics and racial purity. Social Darwinism, based on the ideas of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, was taken to justify the idea that success and power in society were the result of superior breeding. This belief led to the promotion of eugenics and the pursuit of racial purity.

It is important to note that this form of application of biological concepts to social and political fields is not supported by Darwin's original theories on natural selection, which were about the evolution of species due to environmental pressures and did not prescribe social policies or moral judgments about human populations.