| Titre | Charles Darwin et la question du racisme scientifique | |
|---|---|---|
| Auteur | Gérard Molina | |
 |
Revue | Actuel Marx |
| Numéro | no 38, novembre 2005 Le racisme après les races | |
| Rubrique / Thématique | Dossier |
|
| Page | 29-44 | |
| Résumé anglais |
The article
re-addresses the question of the relation between Darwinism and the biological sciences,
taking as its starting-point the precise chronology of the successive inquiries carried out
by Darwin into the question of races, in connection with the various aspects of his theory
of natural selection. It argues that the writings of Darwin do not share any uniform
aim, nor do they come under a single epistemological category. Darwin adopts a number
of divergent approaches, as he addresses a series of issues : the debate between monogenesis and polygenesis ; the characterisation of human races, as practised since Kant ;
the question of craniometrics, so important in physical anthropology in his day ; the
classification of mental faculties ; the role of selection for reproductive purposes in the
differences between the sexes ; the universality of the expression of emotions, and so on.
What emerges from the inquiry is a more complex portrait than is customary in the
controversies about the scientist's « social Darwinism », real or imaginary. Darwin is
neither the purveyor of a Hitlerian racism nor the protagonist of a natural antiracism
directly stemming from this theory. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
|
| Article en ligne | http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=AMX_038_0029 |
