It was mentioned in class yesterday that some ignorant white supremacists (is there any other kind?) have tried to invoke the authority of Charles Darwin to justify their hateful racist bigotry. They've not read this book (I don't suppose they've read many), which points out that Darwin held "a passionate commitment to the abolition of slavery, which in part drove his research in evolution." He reviled any form of so-called "scientific racism."
Both men took great pains to avoid causing unnecessary offense despite having abandoned traditional Christianity. Each had one main adversary who endorsed scientific racism: Lincoln had Stephen A. Douglas, and Darwin had Louis Agassiz... these two intellectual giants came to hold remarkably similar perspectives on the evils of racism, the value of science, and the uncertainties of conventional religion.
Separated by an ocean but joined in their ideas, Lincoln and Darwin acted as trailblazers, leading their societies toward greater freedom of thought and a greater acceptance of human equality. This fascinating biographical examination brings the mid-nineteenth-century discourse about race, science, and humanitarian sensibility to the forefront using the mutual interests and pursuits of these two historic figures. g'reads
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