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However, [[Ludwig von Mises]], an advocate of laissez-faire, argued in his book ''Human Action'' that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of [[liberalism]].

However, [[Ludwig von Mises]], an advocate of laissez-faire, argued in his book ''Human Action'' that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of [[liberalism]].

One would like to think that Darwin was not racist himself, but that would simply not be true. In ''The Descent of Man'' he predicted that the gap between humans and lower species would widen through the extinction of "evolutionary intermediates" such as gorillas and Negros. He declared that ''"the break will then be rendered wider, for it it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as at present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."'' <ref>'''''The Descent of Man,''''' Charles Darwin, 1871, p. 201</ref>  In this sense, he too was subject to the follies of his times.

The social ramifications of his Theory led Darwin to racist claims. In ''The Descent of Man'' he predicted that the gap between humans and lower species would widen through the extinction of "evolutionary intermediates" such as gorillas and Negros. He declared that ''"the break will then be rendered wider, for it it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as at present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."'' <ref>'''''The Descent of Man,''''' Charles Darwin, 1871, p. 201</ref>  In this sense, he too was subject to the contemporary misunderstanding of the nature of the human species.

== Social Darwinism ==

== Social Darwinism ==