Foschi, Renato (Author)
Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza
Volume: 54
Pages: 291-308
Eugenics, a nineteenth-century invention of Francis Galton (1822–1911), has been a fundamental and controversial chapter in the history of science that has engaged many scholars and influenced the course of the twentieth century. It is mainly historians of science who have addressed the subject. Despite many articles and books on one or more aspects of the history of eugenics, this area still remains marginal in many important textbooks on the history of psychology and personality psychology; in some historical essays, it is not covered at all. Conversely, in more recent books on the critical history of psychology, eugenics is mainly addressed as one of the sources of racism in American psychology. This article seeks to show that eugenics has been a fundamental chapter in the history of contemporary psychology with its roots in Anglo-Saxon psychometrics. Its influence has been decisive over the biography of many founders of scientific psychology, as also over the psychology of intelligence and personality. Lastly, an analysis is given of the possible reasons for the marginality of eugenics within the history of psychology.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Fancher, Raymond E.;
(2001)
Eugenics and Other Victorian “Secular Religions”
(/isis/citation/CBB000102771/)
Book
Nikolai Krementsov;
(2018)
With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia
(/isis/citation/CBB575548334/)
Chapter
Larson, Edward J.;
(2010)
Biology and the Emergence of the Anglo-American Eugenics Movement
(/isis/citation/CBB001020302/)
Book
Winston, Andrew S.;
(2004)
Defining Difference: Race and Racism in the History of Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB000471026/)
Article
Annette Mülberger;
(2017)
Mental Association: Testing Individual Differences Before Binet
(/isis/citation/CBB594534377/)
Book
Sternberg, Robert J.;
(2003)
Anatomy of Impact: What Makes the Great Works of Psychology Great
(/isis/citation/CBB000301534/)
Book
White, John;
(2006)
Intelligence, Destiny, and Education: The Ideological Roots of Intelligence Testing
(/isis/citation/CBB000774262/)
Article
Buss, Allan R.;
(1976)
Galton and the birth of differential psychology and eugenics: Social, political, and economic forces
(/isis/citation/CBB000011849/)
Article
Elise Smith;
(2020)
“Why do we measure mankind?” Marketing anthropometry in late-Victorian Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB717605789/)
Article
Cole, Simon A.;
(2007)
Twins, Twain, Galton, and Gilman: Fingerprinting, Individualization, Brotherhood, and Race in Pudd'nhead Wilson
(/isis/citation/CBB000932147/)
Article
Ajavon, François-Xavier;
(2006)
Trois exemples historiques d'eugenisme avant Galton (1883): Platon, Soranos & Vandermonde (2e partie)
(/isis/citation/CBB000932457/)
Book
Brookes, Martin;
(2004)
Extreme Measures: The Dark Visions and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton
(/isis/citation/CBB000501081/)
Book
Gray, Richard T.;
(2004)
About Face: German Physiognomic Thought from Lavater to Auschwitz
(/isis/citation/CBB000470730/)
Thesis
Lowenfeld, Daniel;
(2011)
The International Origins and Popularization of Eugenics
(/isis/citation/CBB001562732/)
Book
Richardson, Angelique;
(2003)
Love and Eugenics in the Late Nineteenth Century: Rational Reproduction and the New Woman
(/isis/citation/CBB000501082/)
Thesis
Cannariato, Christy A.;
(2007)
The Probability of Progress: Resisting History in Galton and Modern Fiction,1869--1936
(/isis/citation/CBB001561289/)
Article
Renwick, Chris;
(2011)
From Political Economy to Sociology: Francis Galton and the Social-Scientific Origins of Eugenics
(/isis/citation/CBB001024706/)
Article
Waller, John C.;
(2001)
Ideas of heredity, reproduction and eugenics in Britain, 1800--1875
(/isis/citation/CBB000100764/)
Chapter
Danielle Coriale;
(2017)
Reading through Deafness: Francis Galton and the Strange Science of Psychophysics
(/isis/citation/CBB391179433/)
Book
Walter, Wolfgang;
(1983)
Der Geist der Eugenik: Francis Galtons Wissenschaftsreligion in kultursoziologischer Perspektive
(/isis/citation/CBB000030373/)
Vesalius
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
History of Science
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
British Journal for the History of Science
Be the first to comment!