Ouspensky, Gurdjieff not Darwinians
Comment on Selection from Book on Social Darwinism
Andrew said,
20.05.09 at 4:51 am ·Ouspensky was actually an anti-Darwinist, but his arguments are very cranky and ill-thought out. Gurdjieff parodied Darwinism in Beelzebub’s Tales, saying that periodically people got together to work out whether monkeys were descended from mankind or vice-versa.
So I don’t think either of them can be counted as Darwinists in any sort of way.
Thanks for the comment. My post was misleading perhaps, to many. I had thought that everyone was aware of Ouspensky’s anti-Darwinism (and I hadn’t recalled Gurdjieff’s comments on the subject)
My point was that the influence of Social Darwinism on such people was indirect, and connected with their own false views of evolution with the influence of Nietzsche in the background.
All in all, it is misleading to charge them with Social Darwinism if they were not Darwinists, which they weren’t .
But Darwinism seems to have somehow spoiled the tone of much guruism, as they gurus began to compete with each other and fight to destroy each other behind the scenes (but then again that was true long before Darwin).
Another critic of Darwin is J.G. Bennett.
New Man, New Age, New Socialism 