Quadrant, March 1st, 2007
THE LAW OF HALF-INTENDED EFFECTS deserves to be more widely known. It usefully describes what happens to men who act intentionally, and who know more-or-less what they intend, but are shocked when things suddenly get out of control. If only he had lived long enough, Sir Francis Galton's enthusiastic promotion of eugenics might have been a good example of this--in some ways it began benignly enough. But its author never saw the grim conclusion: the shock of the "final solution" was kept for its victims and for us.
Galton was born in 1822 and died in 1911. Between those dates he explored and ...
HighBeam Research, Free Preview: 'Sir Francis Galton and the roots of eugenics.(Science)'... Full Membership required for unlimited access. Free 7-day trial.
Subscribers: HighBeam content is only available to HighBeam subscribers. Click the link above for more information.
