Account for the attractiveness of eugenics amongst left-wing social reformers

Account for the attractiveness of eugenics amongst left-wing social reformers Eugenics has often been dismissed as an ideology of the right. It was, at best, nothing more than an extension of social Darwinism which naturalised and sought to maintain the existing social arrangement1 of laissez-faire capitalism, and, at worst, the pseudo-scientific justification for racial prejudices which ultimately sanctioned the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis. More recently, however, increasing attention has been paid to the fact that many left-wing thinkers, among them Marxists and Fabians, lent their enthusiastic support to eugenic ideas. It can seem difficult to understand how socialism - supposedly stressing the importance of environment and devoted to the idea of the inherent equality of man - could coincide with eugenics.2 This essay will argue that, while many historians stress the dichotomy between 'negative' or 'mainline', and 'positive' or 'reform' eugenics3, left-wing thinkers came to have faith in the ideology of eugenics in much the same way as right-wing or conservative thinkers; because it was consistent with their view that the needs of society were far more important than individual rights and that men were not, in fact, equal and that their differences were endowed by heredity. One can see how these views could be shared by sections of both the left and the

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Historical and Philosophical studies
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