Eugenics and the Nature-Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century

by A. Gillette

Overview

Gillette shows that the sciences of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology were undergoing rapid development in the early Twentieth century. However, many of the early researchers in these sciences were also eugenicists. With the rise of behaviourism and the reaction against eugenics in the 1930s, any scientific claims that behaviour might be influenced by heredity were suppressed for ideological reasons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780230108455
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/18/2011
Series:	Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology
Edition description:	2007
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

AARON GILLETTE is Assistant Professor of History, University of Houston-Downtown, USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Part I The Rebirth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

1 Foundations for a "New" Synthesis 23

2 Recent Studies on Human Sexuality 29

Part II The Birth of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

3 The Animal Nature of Humans 43

4 Earlier Studies on Human Sexuality 65

5 Evolution, Ethics, and Culture 101

Part III The Death of Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

6 The Rise of Environmental Behaviorism 113

7 Evolutionary Psychology under Attack 129

8 The Death of Evolutionary Psychology 145

9 Lost in the Wilderness 167

Conclusion 173

List of Abbreviations 179

Notes 181

Bibliography 215

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

"Gillette covers a development in intellectual history that, I believe, was formative in generating today's conventional wisdom about human nature, yet has scarcely been treated by historians of science. The book is well written and researched, and brings interesting new facts to light."

- Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard, and author of The Stuff of Thought

"In this book, Gillette conclusively demonstrates that the sociobiological revolution of the late 20th century was not nearly as revolutionary as most think. Anticipating the work of E. O. Wilson, Richard Dawkins, Robert Trivers, and others by half a century, the work of early 20th-century evolutionary psychologists nevertheless fell into obscurity for several reasons, not the least of which was its taint by association with the eugenics movement. This is a volume that will be of great use not just to students of the histories of psychology and eugenics, but also to those interested in the philosophy and sociology of science." - Kevin Kern, University of Akron

From the Publisher