Article ID: CBB001212691

Charles Darwin's Liberalism in “Natural Selection as Affecting Civilised Nations” (2012)

unapi

This article reassesses 'Natural Selection as affecting Civilised Nations': a thirteen-page section in the first volume of The Descent of Man (1871) often assumed to be problematic for those who wish to emphasize Darwin's liberal credentials. For hismost virulent critics the section connects Darwin to eugenics and the Nazi Holocaust. Even his admirers tend to view it as symptomatic of Darwin succumbing to a more conservative politics. This article demonstrates, through a delineation of the intellectual context and a close reading of key passages, that in fact 'Natural Selection as affecting Civilised Nations' confirmed, rather than abandoned, Darwin's liberalism.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212691/

Similar Citations

Book Dilley, Stephen; (2013)
Darwinian Evolution and Classical Liberalism: Theories in Tension (/isis/citation/CBB001420122/)

Essay Review Ana Barahona; (2016)
Non-Darwinian Evolutionary Thought in the 19th Century (/isis/citation/CBB575980081/)

Book Marta Macedo; Tiago Saraiva; (2019)
Capital Científica: Práticas da Ciência em Lisboa e a História Contemporânea de Portugal (/isis/citation/CBB047854671/)

Article Alejandro Gordillo-García; (2016)
The challenge of instinctive behaviour and Darwin's theory of evolution (/isis/citation/CBB297446928/)

Article James G. Lennox; (2021)
Accentuate the negative: Locating possibility in Darwin’s ‘long argument’ (/isis/citation/CBB202149987/)

Thesis Michael Dee; (2016)
Roots of Charles Darwin's Creativity (/isis/citation/CBB344704069/)

Article Chancellor, Gordon; (2015)
Levels of Selection in Darwin's Origin of Species (/isis/citation/CBB001510219/)

Book Levine, George Lewis; (2006)
Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-enchantment of the World (/isis/citation/CBB000772748/)

Article Bowler, Peter J.; (2008)
What Darwin Disturbed: The Biology That Might Have Been (/isis/citation/CBB000850417/)

Book Donohue, Kathleen; (2011)
Darwin's Finches: Readings in the Evolution of a Scientific Paradigm (/isis/citation/CBB001033158/)

Article Rowlinson, Matthew; (2011)
Foreign Bodies; or, How Did Darwin Invent the Symptom? (/isis/citation/CBB001035039/)

Article Beer, Gillian; (2009)
Darwin and the Uses of Extinction (/isis/citation/CBB001030096/)

Chapter Sloan, Phillip R.; (2001)
“The Sense of Sublimity”: Darwin on Nature and Divinity (/isis/citation/CBB000101144/)

Article Theunissen, Bert; (2012)
Darwin and His Pigeons. The Analogy Between Artificial and Natural Selection Revisited (/isis/citation/CBB001221001/)

Article Greenwood, John D.; (2008)
Mechanism, Purpose and Progress: Darwin and Early American Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB000850772/)

Article Lawson, Anton E.; (2009)
On the Hypothetico-Deductive Nature of Science---Darwin's Finches (/isis/citation/CBB001032859/)

Authors & Contributors
Robert Ready
Alejandro Gordillo-García
Michael Dee
Wilmer, Clive
Theunissen, Bert
Suter, Mischa
Concepts
Natural selection
Evolution
Biology
Science and society
Liberalism
Science and religion
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
18th century
Places
Great Britain
Lisbon (Portugal)
England
Americas
Switzerland
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment