Economists on Darwin’s theory ofsocial evolution and human behaviour

The purpose of this article is to analyse the way economists interested in social andeconomic evolution cite, mention or refer to Darwin. We focus on the attitude ofeconomists towards Darwin’s theory of social evolution – an issue he considered ascentral to his theory. We show that economists refer to and mention Darwin as abiologist and neglect or ignore his theory of social and cultural evolution. Three typesof reference are identified: first, economists view and quote Darwin as havingborrowed concepts from classical political economists, Malthus and Smith. Darwin isthen mentioned to emphasize the existence of economic theories of social evolution.Second, economists refer to and cite Darwin from the perspective of the use ofbiological concepts in social sciences. Darwin's biological theories are then equatedwith those of Spencer. From these two perspectives, Darwin's theory of socialevolution is ignored and Darwin considered as a biologist exclusively. Third,economists acknowledge the existence of Darwin's general (biological and social)theory of evolution. Darwin is then considered and quoted as a biologist and a socialevolutionist...