The Study of Human Heredity and Eugenics During the Nineteenth Century, Focusing on the Work of Francis Galton | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

The Study of Human Heredity and Eugenics During the Nineteenth Century, Focusing on the Work of Francis Galton

Overview

Francis Galton (1822-1910) first coined the term eugenics in 1883. It stems from the Greek word eugenes, meaning good in birth. Though Galton defined the term eugenics rather broadly, he essentially intended the term to mean the science of improving human stock. In other words, he intended to the give groups of people, or races, he viewed as most suitable a chance to prevail over those he viewed as less suitable. Thus eugenics was to become a study dedicated to improving human beings through selective breeding, that is by encouraging the best or most fit members of society to breed more while inhibiting or preventing those that were deemed undesirable or less suitable from having children.

Background

Though Galton was the first person to use the actual term eugenics, one of the first people to write about and promote racial superiority in modern times was Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882), in his book Inequality of the Races (1856). Gobineau insisted that the inferiority and superiority of races is both biological and hereditary. Gobineau was also among those who promoted the notion of the superiority of the Aryan race.

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