Scientific cousins

The relationship between Charles Darwin and Francis Galton

Bibliographic Data

ID8711552
AuthorsRaymond E Fancher (0000-0001-9324-1863, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume64
Issue2
Pages84-92
Publication date2009-02-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/a0013339
PMID19203140
OpenAlexW2034519485
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited3

This article traces the personal as well as the intellectual and scientific relationship between Charles Darwin and his younger half-cousin Francis Galton. Although they had been on friendly terms as young men, and Darwin had in some ways been a role model for Galton, the two did not share major scientific interests until after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859. That work precipitated a religious and philosophical crisis in Galton, which he gradually resolved after conceiving and developing the basic ideas of "hereditary genius" and eugenics. More mathematically inclined than Darwin, he subsequently contributed to the Darwinian evolutionary discussion, and to the future science of psychology, by proposing the basic concept of the nature-nurture dichotomy, the conceptual and statistical foundations for behavior genetics, and the idea for intelligence testing

Behavioural genetics · Biology · Cousin · Darwin (ADL · Darwinism · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Eugenics · Galton's problem · Genius · Nature versus nurture · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Evolution and Science Education · History of Science and Natural History · Mathematics · Psychology · Genetics · Law · Philosophy

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