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Obeying the laws of hereditary descent: Phrenological views on inheritance and eugenics
Author(s) -
Hilts Victor L.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198201)18:1<62::aid-jhbs2300180107>3.0.co;2-s
Subject(s) - eugenics , inheritance (genetic algorithm) , construct (python library) , sociology , context (archaeology) , environmental ethics , law , epistemology , political science , philosophy , biology , genetics , computer science , gene , programming language , paleontology
Phrenologists were the first social scientists to construct a view of human nature in which the inheritability of both physical and mental qualities played a major role. This paper shows that phrenologists addressed many of the same issues that were later to be addressed by social Darwinists and eugenicists. The context within which the phrenologists addressed these issues, however, was that of early‐nineteenth‐century health reform. Phrenological views of inheritance were intimately connected with the phrenological credo that humans are part of nature and therefore must live according to the laws of nature.