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Author Hecht, Jennifer Michael, 1965-

Title The end of the soul : scientific modernity, atheism, and anthropology in France / Jennifer Michael Hecht
Published New York : Columbia University Press, ©2003

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 402 pages) : illustrations
Contents List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction:The End of the Soul; 1. The Society of Mutual Autopsy and the Liturgy of Death; 2. Evangelical Atheism and the Rise of French Anthropology; 3. Scientific Materialism and the Public Response; 4. Careers in Anthropology and the Bertillon Family; 5. No Soul, No Morality: Vacher de Lapouge; 6. Body and Soul: Léonce Manouvrier and the Disappearing Numbers; 7. The Leftist Critique of Determinist Science; 8. Coda; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary On October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, both men and women included, joined together to form an unusual group, The Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. The idea was that, after death, they would dissect one another and (hopefully) show a direct relationship between brain shapes and sizes and the character, abilities and intelligence of individuals. This strange scientific pact, and indeed what we have come to think of as anthropology, which the group's members helped to develop, had its genesis in aggressive, evangelical atheism
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 366-385) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Atheism -- France -- History
Religion and science -- France -- History
Anthropology -- France -- History
RELIGION -- Atheism.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- General.
Anthropology
Atheism
Religion
Religion and science
Antropologie.
Atheïsme.
Geloof en wetenschap.
SUBJECT France -- Religion. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85051495
Subject France
Frankrijk.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0231502389
9780231502382