Positivists In The 1800's

Race has been a controversial topic for decades. Scientists and anthropologists have had opposed views for a very long time and there still is not one accepted belief. One of the most controversial topics revolving around race is the correlation between race and superiority. Although this is not a popular research topic at the present time, this correlation was the subject of many pseudoscience experiments in the early 1800’s. Most of these theories are not accepted in today’s time, but were seen as “positivist” during the time of their discovery. Three racial positivists who performed these pseudoscientific methods are Francis Galton, J Phillipe Rushton, and Sam Morton. Francis Galton performed most of his studies in the mid-late 1800’s. He is most known for creating the term “eugenics”. The theory of eugenics was the idea that using selective breeding can “improve” the human population. Galton believed that white people were superior to all other races and the best way to preserve the race was through natural selection. His thought process was that if only the white people reproduced, the other races would eventually die out. Today, Galton’s ideas are not accepted or pursued because generally whites are no longer viewed as a superior and today we have less ethnocentric views on cultures. J …show more content…
Craniology is the study of the shape and size of skulls of different races and making assumptions off of these findings. After collecting and studying various skulls he created identification criteria for white, black, and Asian skulls. However, we are unsure to this day how accurate his findings are because it was later discovered that Morton lied about his results in order to support his original hypothesis. His findings were used in the realm of policy and had grave political implications, especially on