The Modern Concept of the Public Sphere - Dissertation Example

The hypothesis that served as the backbone of this paper has been primarily derived from an in-depth depiction and careful analysis of the literature regarding the notion of the public sphere from its initial conception of Habermas until well into the modern times from the commentaries and studies provided for and conducted by Maltz, Geiger, Goodnight, and others. This research has been primarily dependent on printed sources such as books, articles, and journals. The works of Habermas have been the chief resource of this research against which all the rest of the sources have been pitted up against. Online literature has likewise been utilized as most of the commentaries with regards to the preponderance of modern media facilities, specifically the internet, have been mainly reposed online.   

Introduction
In 1859, Charles Darwin launched the book entitled “On the Origin of Species” as a stalwart piece detailing the process of evolution undergone by man and the generic transmutation of species (Coyne, 2009). In that particular book, Darwin expounded on the idea that human beings emerged as the common-day entities that they are after having undergone a series of natural selection processes (Glass, 1959). While science has been identified by Darwin as the key factor that influenced such development in the human sphere, a new age of pragmatists came in to assert that evolution is not likely to be contained in the genetic transformation of mankind. These proponents came to be known as advocates of “Social Darwinism” (Ward, 1907).

In Europe, the concept of “Social Darwinism” has been in existence since the early 1870s (Ward, 1907). But the United States took on the theory much later and only after almost eight decades with the utilization of Richard Hofstadter of the concept of competitive strife as the catalyst that triggers progress (Ward, 1907). Furthermore, Hofstadter made use of the term “Darwinist Collectivism” to manifest his theories (Leonard, 2009, 38). The term “Social Darwinism” has come to be known as the progression of systemic processes generating modern concepts of society (Leonard, 2009, 39). That as a sociological concept, human beings are by large known to operate under a specific need to survive (Leonard, 2009).