The importance of understanding Social Darwinism and its flaws

In today's class I brought up social Darwinism to make the point that loose applications of Darwinian thought to spheres of human life may result in dangerous consequences.

It is important to recognize that social Darwinism is now largely debunked and Darwin himself did not advocate any such thing.

Nor could we check our sympathy, even at the urging of hard reason, without deterioration in the noblest part of our nature. The surgeon may harden himself whilst performing an operation, for he knows that he is acting for the good of his patient; but if we were intentionally to neglect the weak and helpless; it could only be for a contingent benefit, with an overwhelming present evil.

- Charles Darwin; The Descent of Man, 1871

If you're interested to know more, do read the wiki entry on Evolution and Ethics

How to approach the subject of innovation?

I am rather pleased that we picked this topic as the notion of creativity and what engenders creativity is one of my personal favourites at the moment.

In an attempt to dive right in, here are three angles to approach the subject innovation: the management angle, the psychological angle (theories of motivation) and the social philosophy angle.

For a management approach, I found this rather old piece (1996) published in the R&D Innovator Magazine. Basically, the author attempts to paramterize and study (using a survey) what are the most important aspects in the work environment that foster innovation.

For another management approach, here is another blog post by the London based Finnish thinker Cecila Weckstrom on how to lead creative people.

Here is a TED talk by a failed lawyer Dan Pink, who takes a more psychological approach and asks the question: what is it that creative people feel most rewarded by?

For a very broad sociological approach, you may be interested in the wonderfully eloquent, Swiss-born English writer Alain de Botton and his thoughts on the pleasures and sorrows of work.