What did Darwin really say? Why did a fundamentally biological theory attract the interest of philosophers, economists, and sociologists with such different ideologies and structures? What did the market advocate Herbert Spencer, the author of the Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, and the anarchist activist Pyotr Kropotkin find there?

How did Darwin's own writings become a scientific alibi for the apologists of an unjust social structure, which for several thousand years has viewed the inequality of power and wealth as the natural human condition? Why does the same line of thought consider war an inherent Darwinian characteristic with adaptive value, and therefore inevitable? How did a scientific theory about the evolution of organisms and natural selection lead to the movement of social Darwinism and the atrocious eugenics of the Nazis?

Why, after the brief post-war interlude, does social Darwinism revive in the era of neoliberalism, where it is shamelessly praised by several political leaders, systemic thinkers, scientists, and opinion makers? How will humanity with today's social and economic structure and the deafening inequality manage the impending climate crisis and the dangers of the Biotechnological Revolution?

Is there something that could be called human nature? That is, a set of behavioral characters and values that succinctly describe humans? That is both universal and includes all human cultures across time and space? And is this nature violent, warlike, and selfish? And if such a thing exists, where does it come from? [...] Is man by nature selfish or selfless? A fraud or honest? Malicious or supportive? Warlike or pacifist? Selfish or altruistic? Predator or sheep? Hawk or dove? Sensitive or apathetic? Greedy or measured? Unjust or just? Competitive or cooperative? Ultimately, is he by nature bad or good? The mere fact that we have words for all these opposing characters suggests that human behavior can be found moving to any position between the two opposite ends of the pendulum.