In the name of science

The conceptual and ideological background of Charles Richet's eugenics

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3080189
AutoresAntonello La Vergata (0000-0001-9333-0305, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen25
Númerosuppl 1
Páginas125-144
Fecha de publicación2018-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistória Ciências Saúde-Manguinhos (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0104-5970 • E-ISSN: 1678-4758
EditorialFapUNIFESP (SciELO) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1590/s0104-59702018000300008
PMID30133586
OpenAlexW2885593504
SCIELO_PIDS0104-59702018000900125
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas11

The French physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Charles Richet was the author of an impressive quantity of writings, including novels and poetry. He was an out-and-out eugenicist, convinced that "intentional, conscious, scientific, and methodical" selection could achieve "any result, provided we have enough patience." He believed that the quantitative and qualitative growth of the population was of vital importance for France. In La sélection humaine (1919) and other writings, he dreamt of conscious selection to create "intellectual élites." This process would be crowned by the production of a "higher human nature, a real surhumanité." A staunch believer in the inheritance of acquired characteristics, Richet combined Darwinism and Lamarckism

Art · Darwinism · Epistemology · Eugenics · Galton's problem · Ideology · Literature · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · French Historical and Cultural Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · Medical History and Research · Philosophy · Psychology