R.A. Fisher, eugenics, and the campaign for family allowances in interwar Britain.

IF 0.7 1区 哲学 Q2 HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE British Journal for the History of Science Pub Date : 2021-12-01 DOI:10.1017/S0007087421000674
Alex Aylward
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Abstract

Ronald Aylmer Fisher (1890-1962) is today remembered as a giant of twentieth-century statistics, genetics and evolutionary theory. Alongside his influential scientific contributions, he was also, throughout the interwar years, a prominent figure within Britain's eugenics movement. This essay provides a close examination of his eugenical ideas and activities, focusing particularly upon his energetic advocacy of family allowances, which he hoped would boost eugenic births within the more 'desirable' middle and upper classes. Fisher's proposals, which were grounded in his distinctive explanation for the decay of civilizations throughout human history, enjoyed support from some influential figures in Britain's Eugenics Society and beyond. The ultimate failure of his campaign, though, highlights tensions both between the eugenics and family allowances movements, and within the eugenics movement itself. I show how these social and political movements represented a crucial but heretofore overlooked context for the reception of Fisher's evolutionary masterwork of 1930, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, with its notorious closing chapters on the causes and cures of national and racial decline.

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R.A.费雪,优生学,以及两次世界大战之间英国家庭津贴运动。
罗纳德·艾尔默·费雪(Ronald Aylmer Fisher, 1890-1962)是20世纪统计学、遗传学和进化理论的巨人。除了他有影响力的科学贡献外,在两次世界大战期间,他还是英国优生学运动的杰出人物。这篇文章对他的优生学思想和活动进行了仔细的研究,特别关注他对家庭津贴的积极倡导,他希望这能在更“理想的”中上层阶级中促进优生学的产生。费雪的建议基于他对人类历史上文明衰落的独特解释,得到了英国优生学协会内外一些有影响力人物的支持。然而,他竞选的最终失败凸显了优生学和家庭津贴运动之间以及优生学运动本身内部的紧张关系。我展示了这些社会和政治运动是如何代表了一个至关重要的,但迄今为止被忽视的背景,对于接受费雪1930年的进化论巨著《自然选择的遗传理论》(the genetic Theory of Natural Selection),以及其臭名昭著的关于国家和种族衰落的原因和治疗的最后几章。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.80
自引率
12.50%
发文量
59
期刊介绍: This leading international journal publishes scholarly papers and review articles on all aspects of the history of science. History of science is interpreted widely to include medicine, technology and social studies of science. BJHS papers make important and lively contributions to scholarship and the journal has been an essential library resource for more than thirty years. It is also used extensively by historians and scholars in related fields. A substantial book review section is a central feature. There are four issues a year, comprising an annual volume of over 600 pages. Published for the British Society for the History of Science
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