Some of the 19th and 20th century followers of Darwin hit on a novel way to speed up the "natural selection" process. Their ideas led to the development of what is called "eugenics." Please read through the Wikipedia summary of the eugenics movement. What do you see here that suggests that there is a dark side to the Darwinian idea of progress?
Thursday, November 6, 2014
The Eugenics Movement (extra credit)
Some of the 19th and 20th century followers of Darwin hit on a novel way to speed up the "natural selection" process. Their ideas led to the development of what is called "eugenics." Please read through the Wikipedia summary of the eugenics movement. What do you see here that suggests that there is a dark side to the Darwinian idea of progress?
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From the reading and class lectures, it seems to me the ideas of Darwin are not inherently evil. While I don't necessarily agree with the theories of Darwin, I believe he was merely a man of science who sought to explain something in he couldn't understand. When he released his theory upon the public, I think it fell into the wrong hands and was manipulated to fit their needs just like so many of the wonderful ideas and inventions that have been created.
ReplyDeleteIn the hands of say a racist, the theory of Darwin would suggest that a superior race could/did exist and merely needed to be coaxed out by proper breeding. If we look at our home of the free, we can see race laws that prevented blacks and whites from marrying in fears that it would dilute the pure white blood line.
If such theories fell into the hands of say a scientist, such as Mengele or any of the other eugenics believers, it could/ did lead to the sterilisation of people who suffered from physical and mental disabilities as well as people deemed inferior( jews and gypsies).
Lastly, Darwinian theory has a very dark side in the hands of rich and greedy. The example given in class was Rockefeller. Rockefeller used this theory of only the strong survive to justify his actions in the business world and that belief holds true today in all countries with large business firms. In the eyes of the rich and powerful, the poor are the weak and they are used as tools or soldiers as it were to advance the territory of the wealthy king they work for. It doesn't matter if they break because they are weak and easily replaceable.
The dark side to the Darwinian idea of progress can be seen in the process of improving the genetic quality of human beings. This process takes away a persons humanity by not allowing them to select and care for another human being, because their mates are selected for them based on genetic traits. These are a few things that can be agreed as the dark side to the Darwinian idea of progress.
ReplyDelete- Melayna Waisanen
Eugenics is the belief and pracitce of improving the genetic quality of the human population. From that definition we can understand that only the richest, strongest, or most beautiful humans are aloud to reproduce. That alone is a dark side of Darwinism. People such as Galton made this one idea that some people were better than others. This idea spread into colleges and universities, into other countries such as Germany and Sweden. I don't think they most of thought about what happens if they are all the top human? Who is going to do the dirty work and who is no concerned the best? The idea of dark side of the Darwinian idea wanted to improve the quality of humans, but did not think of how this would effect how people love one another.
ReplyDeleteThe Dark side of Darwinism can only be described as the breeding of perfect human beings which is Eugenics. Eugenics was creating of the human race to be superior which translated into the the rich and physical dominating all of these things because they are seen as the top human beings. The dark side of the Darwinian Idea was made to improve human/breed them to only create the best. But the idea forgot to include the human emotion and the way someone could be attached to some other person. This idea didn't focus on love which is a large part in consummating a child together.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Dietz
The dark side to the Darwinian idea of progress can be seen in the process of improving the genetic quality of human beings. From this definition we come to know than only the beautiful, rich, strong people have that right to reproduce. It didn't give equal opportunity.
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