Search results for "Eugenics"
showing 10 items of 17 documents
Economists and Eugenics: Progressive Era Racism and its (Jewish) Discontents
2017
This chapter analyzes the contribution to the debates on labor and immigration of a group of Jewish academicians and reformers who, during the second half of the Progressive Era, explicitly took a stance against the racialist and eugenic rhetoric of the period. This group includes first-rank economists like Edwin R. A. Seligman, Jacob H. Hollander, and Emanuel A. Goldenweiser; influential field specialists such as Isaac A. Hourwich and Isaac M. Rubinow; and relatively less known figures like Max J. Kohler and Samuel K. Joseph. By focusing on the voices of these dissenters, this chapter enriches the emerging picture of Progressive Era eugenic and racial thought.
Sexualidad, reproducción y cultura obrera revolucionaria en España: la revista <em>Orto</em> (1932-1934)
2014
Orto. Revista de Documentacion Social, published in Valencia from 1932 to 1934, is a good example of cultural magazines in the Spanish labour movement, particularly in the world of anarcho-syndicalism. Marin Civera, its editor, sought to make Orto (which had a large and diverse range of contributors) a forum for convergence between the different working-class ideologies, united by the ideas of “Syndicalism”. In keeping with its aim to be “social documentation for the proletariat “, the journal took a strong interest in the spread of theory and practice, and debates on, sexual reform, linking these efforts to the international movement for that cause. In addition to the struggle for a new se…
EUGENICS AND SOCIALIST THOUGHT IN THE PROGRESSIVE ERA: THE CASE OF JAMES MEDBERY MACKAYE
2018
The aim of this essay is to assess James Medbery MacKaye’s contribution to socialist thought during the Progressive Era. Largely forgotten today, MacKaye proposed a special version of socialism, which he called “Pantocracy,” based on a peculiar blend of utilitarian and eugenic assumptions. Specifically, MacKaye held that biological fitness mapped to the capacity for happiness—biologically superior individuals possess a greater capacity for happiness—and saw the eugenic breeding of “a being or race of beings capable in the first place of happiness” as a possibility open by the advent of Pantocracy. Incidentally, this essay provides further evidence that the influence of eugenic and racialist…
Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn on the Social Origins of American Business Leaders: A Chapter in the History of Social Science at Harvard
2019
In their 1932 volume "American Business Leaders: A Study in Social Origins and Social Stratification," Frank W. Taussig and Carl S Joslyn, then a young Harvard graduate, argued that success in business depended more on innate superiority than on other environmental factors such as financial aid, influential connections, and formal education. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main contentions of Taussig and Joslyn, as well the intellectual genesis of, and the general reactions to, this controversial volume. Although our main focus is on Taussig and Joslyn, other figures, all directly affiliated with Harvard, will play a decisive role in our narrative—the economist Thomas Nixon Carver, …
Jürgen Habermas and the risk of liberal eugenics for the ethical self-understanding of species
2016
El artículo analiza el problema de la naturaleza humana que presenta Jürgen Habermas en su obra El futuro de la naturaleza humana, ¿Hacia una eugenesia liberal? Los vertiginosos avances biotecnológicos reclaman una rigurosa reflexión bioética que el filósofo alemán afronta superponiendo a su ética del discurso una ética de la especie. Habermas esboza un modelo de naturaleza humana construido sobre preceptos como la dignidad humana y de la vida humana, la simetría de las relaciones intersubjetivas y, a resultas de estas, la autocomprensión ética de la especie. Respecto a la eugenesia liberal, el autor se posiciona criticando la eugenesia positiva y amparando la negativa, para lo que basa su …
Eugenics and American Economics in the Interwar Years: The Case of Thomas Nixon Carver
2017
The aim of this paper is to explore in some detail Carver’s eugenic ideas with a main, albeit non-exclusive, focus on the interwar years. Although his major contributions had all appeared prior to 1918, Carver remained particularly productive throughout the 1920s and 1930s, publishing several articles and eight books, which include The Principles of National Economy (1921), and The Essential Factors of Social Evolution (1935)—two works which contain significant traces of eugenic reasoning. Just as important, Carver’s interwar activities were not limited to academia. After his retirement from Harvard in 1932 he became involved in the activities of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, while i…
Reforma sexual, control de natalidad, naturismo y pacifismo. La cultura libertaria trasatlántica en las décadas de 1920 y 1930: Estudios. Revista Ecl…
2019
The editors and main collaborators to the influential Spanish libertarian magazine Estudios (Valencia, 1928-1937) showed a permanent interest in connecting the magazine with the main networks of global anarchism in the interwar years, and also with contemporary international campaigns in defense of birth control, eugenics, sexual reform, naturism or pacifism. As its predecessor did—the magazine Generacion Consciente (1923-1928)—, Estudios was linked to well-known militants, writers, scientists and propagandists in general of those ideas and practices in Europe and America. Estudios built networks using the magazine itself, its personal contacts with those individuals, and also an active boo…
The Assassination of Lieutenant Joe Petrosino: A Contested Symbol in the Mainstream and Italian-American Press in the Early 20th Century
2023
Recently, scholars have looked at the ethnic press through a social constructionist lens, examining the process through which immigrants developed a sense of identity and the role of print culture in forming “imagined communities” (Anderson). Here, I analyze the coverage of the 1909 assassination of police Lieutenant Petrosino in both mainstream and Italian-American press and popular culture. This shocking event ignited a debate over the nature and origin of the Mafia and the dangerousness of the Italian community, a debate involving discourses of racial difference, immigration restriction, and the capability of Italians to assimilate. This debate became an important arena in which Italian …
Is it wrong to deliberately conceive or give birth to a child with mental retardation?
2002
This paper discusses the issues of deciding to have a child with mental retardation, and of terminating a pregnancy when the future child is known to have the same disability. I discuss these problems by criticizing a utilitarian argument, namely, that one should act in a way that results in less suffering and less limited opportunity in the world. My argument is that future parents ought to assume a strong responsibility towards the well-being of their prospective children when they decide to reproduce. The moral point in cases in which our acts affect the well-being of future children should be expressed strictly in terms of parents' culpability. Future children thus do not have current m…
Charles Darwin and ideology : rethinking the Darwinian revolution
2016
This short paper critiques the idea of any coherent Darwinian ideology. Charles Darwin himself did not adopt any obvious ideology, except perhaps that of anti-slavery. However, his published work, and that of other evolutionists, led to the emergence of social Darwinism. Herbert Spencer’s role in fostering social Darwinism, and the rise of eugenics, are briefly described. The connection, if any, between the historical figure of Darwin and the social movement that bears his name is discussed. While Darwin’s On the origin of species or The descent of man can hardly account for all the racial stereotyping, nationalism, or political bigotry seen in the half century after his death, there can be…