Electric Agora (archive)

Tag: Eugenics

  • The Enigma (and Necessity) of George Schuyler

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ____ When we think of the Harlem Renaissance, names like Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale Hurston come readily to mind. Those with deeper knowledge might also think of James Weldon Johnson and Countee Cullen. Few are likely to think of George Schuyler. Despite being one of the most engaging black writers (and…

  • Sources of Human Diversity

    by Kevin Currie-Knight ___ People differ in all sorts of ways. Most of our differences generally go unnoticed when we interact. For example, with regard to a store clerk yesterday, I didn’t notice what her eye color or dominant hand is. But other differences, as the saying goes, make a difference. Historically and into the…

  • Oliver Mayo, Evolution by Natural Selection and Ethics: What in evolution has ethical implications?

    by David L. Duffy Mayo’s book is a meditation on/updating of Ferdinand Brunetière’s (1894) The morality of evolutionary theory. [1][2] Like Christian de Duve’s Genetics of original sin and the future of life,  Brunetière reckons Original Sin is explained by natural selection. [3] Mayo, however, prefers the Humean line on is-ought. This is an “outsider”…

  • Bad genes? Or bad genetics?

    by E. John Winner The following shouldn’t be seen as a condemnation of genetic research, which has proven invaluable in understanding evolution, epidemiology, breeding of better food sources, etc. But there is still a holdover from the era of eugenics that some cling to: the hope that genetics can be used to determine the differences…