The so-called Austrian school of sociologists, of which Ludwig Gumplowicz was the most prominent, consisted of influential apostles of Social Darwinism. Gumplowicz saw sociology as the study of groups in conflict. He applied Darwin's theories of "survival of the fittest" and the "struggle for existence" to a system called conflict theory, which exerted great influence in social, political, and legal studies.

Gumplowicz, born March 9, 1838, in Krakow, now in Poland, was the son of well-to-do Polish Jews. He studied at the universities of Krakow and Vienna, Austria, deciding upon journalism as his career. As a young man, he became a supporter of the Polish national movement, but after its collapse, he rejected politics and turned to the academic life. In 1875, he became a professor of public law at the University of Graz, Austria, remaining there until shortly before his death on August 19, 1909. On that day, Gumplowicz, stricken with cancer...