Will-o'-the-wisp – on the map because of their influence as an ideologue of racism, as an object of critique.
Arthur de Gobineau
For Gobineau, “race” decided the fate of civilisations and “mixing” led to their decline – a doctrine without scientific basis, studied today as a source of racist ideology.
Placement
French diplomat and writer whose “Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races” (1853–55) claimed that race decides history and that civilisations decline through “mixing” – a doctrine without scientific basis that became a founding text of racist ideology; on the map as an object of critique.
Key ideas
- Race as alleged motor of history (refuted)
- Decline through “mixing” (racist doctrine)
- Pessimistic aristocratic philosophy of history
- Reception in the Wagner circle and in Germany
Influence
Influenced 1
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
influenced
Chamberlain took up Gobineau’s racial doctrine in Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899) but rejected his pessimism about racial mixing; scholarship treats both as pseudoscientific race ideology. H. S. Chamberlain, Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (1899); G. G. Field, Evangelist of Race: The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1981)
Evidence: AI draft
Houston Stewart Chamberlain › 1855–1927
Criticism
Criticized by 6
Alexis de Tocqueville
criticised by
Tocqueville wrote to Gobineau that his racial doctrines were probably false and certainly pernicious, a fatalism that denies human freedom (letter of 17 November 1853). Tocqueville to Gobineau, 17 Nov. 1853, in Œuvres complètes IX (Correspondance d’Alexis de Tocqueville et d’Arthur de Gobineau, 1959)
Evidence: AI draft
Alexis de Tocqueville › 1805–1859
Anténor Firmin
criticised by
Firmin answered Gobineau’s Essai with De l’égalité des races humaines (1885), arguing with the methods of positive anthropology for the equal capacities of all human beings. A. Firmin, De l’égalité des races humaines. Anthropologie positive (1885); A. de Gobineau, Essai sur l’inégalité des races humaines (1853–55)
Evidence: AI draft
Anténor Firmin › 1850–1911
Ernst Cassirer
criticised by
Cassirer traced in Gobineau’s racial theory a modern political myth that replaced ethics and history with the worship of race (The Myth of the State, 1946, ch. 16). E. Cassirer, The Myth of the State (1946), ch. 16 ‘From Hero Worship to Race Worship’
Evidence: AI draft
Ernst Cassirer › 1874–1945
Georg Lukács
criticised by
Lukács read Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of Human Races as founding the racial theory that fed into fascism (Die Zerstörung der Vernunft, 1954, ch. VII). G. Lukács, Die Zerstörung der Vernunft (1954), ch. VII
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Lukács › 1885–1971
Hannah Arendt
criticised by
Arendt analysed Gobineau as an aristocratic theorist of decline whose race-thinking, before racism proper, later became a weapon of racist politics (The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951, ch. 6). H. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), part II, ch. 6 “Race-Thinking before Racism”
Evidence: AI draft
Hannah Arendt › 1906–1975
Claude Lévi-Strauss
criticised by
Against Gobineau’s doctrine of unequal races Lévi-Strauss set the diversity of cultures, whose progress arises from exchange and collaboration between them (Race et histoire, UNESCO, 1952). C. Lévi-Strauss, Race et histoire (UNESCO, 1952), ch. 1 and conclusion
Evidence: AI draft
Claude Lévi-Strauss › 1908–2009
Works
Four volumes (1853–55) claiming that the rise and fall of civilisations is determined by race and that “mixing” leads to decline; scientifically baseless, it became a founding text of racist ideology.
Position
Gobineau is on the map as an ideologue, not because his theory is defensible – it is scientifically refuted – but because research treats it as an influential source of racist thought. The Essay claimed that the rise and fall of civilisations is decided by race, that the “white race” and especially an “Aryan” branch had created all higher civilisation, and that “mixing” leads unavoidably to decline. The book was a pessimistic, aristocratic philosophy of history directed against democracy rather than a programme of conquest; it found little response in France. Tocqueville, his former superior, wrote to him in 1853 that his doctrines were probably false and certainly pernicious, because they deny human freedom. The Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin answered with “The Equality of the Human Races” (1885). In Germany the Wagner circle, Schemann and later Houston Stewart Chamberlain made Gobineau a reference of völkisch race theory, and National Socialist authors claimed him while dropping his pessimism. Hannah Arendt (1951) analysed him in her prehistory of totalitarian race-thinking; Claude Lévi-Strauss’s UNESCO essay “Race and History” (1952) set the diversity of cultures against him.
Life & context
Joseph Arthur de Gobineau was born on 14 July 1816 in Ville-d’Avray near Paris into a family of royalist officers and spent part of his youth in Switzerland and Brittany. From 1835 he lived in Paris as a journalist and writer. In 1849, when Alexis de Tocqueville was foreign minister, Gobineau became his chief of staff, and through him entered the diplomatic service. He served in Bern, Hanover and Frankfurt, twice in Persia (1855–58 and 1862–63), in Athens, in Rio de Janeiro, where he befriended Emperor Pedro II, and finally as minister in Stockholm (1872–77). Besides the “Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races” (1853–55) he wrote travel books on Persia, a study of religions in Central Asia, novels and novellas such as “Les Pléiades” (1874) and the “Nouvelles asiatiques” (1876). Forced into retirement in 1877, he lived mostly in Italy; in his last years he was close to Richard Wagner and stayed in Bayreuth. He died in Turin on 13 October 1882. In 1894 Ludwig Schemann founded a Gobineau Society in Germany and translated the Essay into German.
Further main works
- Three Years in Asia (Trois ans en Asie, 1859)
- Religions and Philosophies in Central Asia (Les religions et les philosophies dans l’Asie centrale, 1865)
- The Pleiads (Les Pléiades, novel, 1874)
- Asian Stories (Nouvelles asiatiques, 1876)
- The Renaissance (La Renaissance, 1877)
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