Development of Eugenics Theory from Positivist Rationalism to the Tragedy of the Second World War Exemplified by Selected Excerpts from the Works of Darwin, Galton and Stoddard

Zgrzebnicki, Paweł

Development of Eugenics Theory from Positivist Rationalism to the Tragedy of the Second World War Exemplified by Selected Excerpts from the Works of Darwin, Galton and Stoddard

Abstract

The intensive intellectual and economic development of the Victorian era and, most of all, increasingly far-reaching contacts between Europe and non-European peoples made understanding and classifying the issues related to ethnic diversity of the world necessary. The emerging science of the West had to face a lack of data, a multitude of speculations, poor methodology and a Christian paradigm which led to a specific way of thinking. The biological realism of Darwin and his efforts to make the human race subject to objective/scientific classification, as well as his omission of ethical considerations, paved the way to the eugenic speculations of Francis Galton. The authority of later researchers, accepting their perspective with the resulting driving moral questions away together with a growing fear of degeneration of civilisation eventually led to the extreme radicalisation of opinions presented in the works of Lothrop Stoddard. A century of xenophobic thought followed, with racial polarisation, and then in national terms, a eugenicist world-view was finally vented technologically and ideologically through the tragedy of the Second World War.

Keywords

eugenics degeneration nationalism social engineering

Citation

Zgrzebnicki, P. (2017). Development of Eugenics Theory from Positivist Rationalism to the Tragedy of the Second World War Exemplified by Selected Excerpts from the Works of Darwin, Galton and Stoddard.