Will-o'-the-wisp – on the map because of their influence as an ideologue of racism, as an object of critique.
Hereditary Genius
Uses biographical lists of eminent men to argue that talent is inherited and ranks “races” by supposed ability; it prepared the programme Galton later called eugenics.
Introduction
In “Hereditary Genius” (1869) Galton collected lists of judges, statesmen, scientists, poets and other eminent men and their relatives, in order to show that “natural ability” is inherited. He grouped abilities on a scale derived from the normal distribution and, in a chapter on “the comparative worth of different races”, ranked peoples on it – a racist judgement without scientific basis. The book drew on Darwin’s “Origin of Species” and was read with interest by Darwin himself. Its programme – to improve a population by encouraging the reproduction of the “able” – became eugenics, a word Galton coined in 1883. The book is studied today both as an early attempt at statistical psychology and as a founding text of eugenics, whose consequences historians such as Daniel Kevles have traced.
Connections
Builds on
- On the Origin of Species1859 · Charles Darwin
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