| Description |
1 online resource (xxii, 425 pages) |
| Contents |
Intro -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Boxes -- Chapter 1: Science, Society, and Darwin's Idealization -- Idolization as a Tool of Systemic Racism and Sexism -- Early Life and Societal Contingencies, Bubbles, and Biases -- Cambridge, Purpose, and Design -- The Beagle, Slavery, Progress, and Racism -- The Origin, Scientific Egos, Rivalries, Networks, and Immortality -- The Descent, Sexual Selection, and Human "Races" -- The Descent and the Malthusian "War-Like" Struggle-for-Existence -- The Expression, Altruism, Morals, Inequities, and Indoctrination |
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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, Immortality, and the Newton of Biology -- Chapter 2: Darwin's Society and Science -- A State Funeral, the Power of Place, and "Racial Capitalism" -- The Other "War": Self-Preservation of the Cream of Victorian Society -- Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Malthus, Capitalism, and Ethnocentrism -- Newton's Mechanicism, Externalism, Adaptationism, and Social Legitimization -- Darwinian Fundamentalism, Capitalism, Individualism, and Social Darwinism -- Just So Stories for Little Children, Evolutionary Psychology, and Evolutionary Medicine |
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Social Darwinism, Selfishness, and Today's Popular Culture -- Chapter 3: Racism and Its Societal Repercussions -- Putting Things in Context: Scientific Biases and Racism Before Darwin -- Darwin, Indoctrination, and the Repercussions of Scientific Evolutionary Racism -- Darwin's Encounters with Non-Europeans, "Civilization," and Western Atrocities -- Not Everybody Was Necessarily "Like That" Back Then: Wallace -- Eugenics, Leonard Darwin, and Tragic Societal Legacies of Science -- Hitler's Struggle and the Arian Struggle for Existence |
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"Was Hitler a Darwinian?": A Biased Question About Scientific Biases -- Medical Experimentation, Scientific Biases, and "Giants" -- What Do We Really Know About Human Evolution and "Races"? -- Chapter 4: Misogyny and Its Damaging Legacy -- Ancient Greece, Christianity, and Darwin's Misogyny -- Darwin and the Feminist and Anti-Vivisection Movements -- Inaccuracies of Darwin's Evolutionary "Facts" About Women -- Darwin and the Supposed Sexual Passivity of Women -- What Do We Know About Human Evolution and Gender Stereotypes? -- Chapter 5: Bringing Reality to Society and Science -- Figure Credits |
| Summary |
In this book Diogo, a renowned biologist and anthropologist, addresses a question that is critical for the understanding of science, beliefs, idolization, systemic racism and sexism, and our societies in general: why has Darwin been idolized in such a unique way, particularly by Western scholars? Diogo shows that many evolutionary 'facts' stated in Darwin's works, particularly about human evolution, are inaccurate constructions based on Victorian biases and stereotypes: non-Europeans are inferior, women have a lower intelligence than men, Victorian society was the pinnacle of evolution, and so on. Importantly, such inaccurate biased statements about our evolution are markedly in contrast with the mostly accurate, and often brilliant, ideas put forward by Darwin concerning non-human organisms. Importantly, it was precisely the combination of such brilliant ideas, the use of simplistic and sometimes exaggerated metaphors that were catchy and easily absorbed by the general public, and Darwin's intellectual conservatism and biased ideas about women and non-European peoples that led to Darwin's idolization, particularly by Western scientists, as well as to the darkest societal repercussions of his works. By portraying such biased ideas as "evolutionary facts" Darwin provided easy ammunition for populist political leaders, authoritarians, colonialists, and white supremacists to 'scientifically' defend social hierarchies, sexism, racism, discrimination, oppression, and segregation. A typical argument used to defend Darwin from portraying such erroneous sexist and racist ideas as facts is that "back then" everybody was racist and sexist. Diogo deconstructs this argument by providing enthralling case studies and travel descriptions by authors such as Wallace and Humboldt, who often praised the indigenous peoples that repulsed - and criticized the social hierarchies and Western imperialism that marveled - Darwin. The aim of this book is therefore not to 'cancel' Darwin or argue that he was always wrong: not at all, in general he was an extraordinary biologist, but was a much less successful anthropologist due in great part to his Victorian biases. Instead, the book discusses Darwin's writings, ideas, and their repercussions in a broader way, without taboos, omissions, idolization or demonization in order to show Darwin, and science in general, in all their complexity. This is because, if we fail to acknowledge and emphasize the biases, prejudices, inaccuracies, and abuses of our past, and merely continue to blindly idealize it, our kids will be condemned to undertake or suffer similar societal abuses in the future |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 393-409) |
| Subject |
Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Influence
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Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882 -- Political and social views
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Evolution (Biology)
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9783031490552 |
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303149055X |
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