Abstract
The Malthusian stress on mass death and destruction that Darwin adopted in his evolutionary theory presupposed high rates of reproduction. Thus, reproduction is central to the Darwinian vision of nature and humanity: organisms possessing traits that allow them to reproduce in greater numbers than their competitors survive and pass on those traits. Furthermore, sexual instincts and sexual selection played important roles in Darwin’s explanation of human evolution. One wonders if Freud was guided (unconsciously perhaps?) by Darwin in formulating his theory of the twin drives of libido and thanatos, that is, sex and death (aggression).1 In any case, sociobiologists and evolutionary psychologists today regularly appeal to Darwinism to make sex and reproduction the most important explanation for human behaviors. In his highly influential (but controversial) work, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, Edward O. Wilson stated,
In a Darwinist sense the organism does not live for itself. Its primary function is not even to reproduce other organisms; it reproduces genes, and it serves as their temporary carrier. … the organism is only DNA’s way of making more DNA. More to the point, the hypothalamus and limbic system are engineered to perpetuate DNA.2
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Notes
Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975), 3.
Wilhelm Schallmayer, “Ueber die Grundbedeutung der Ethik und ihr Verhältnis zu den Forderungen des Rassedienstes,” Die neue Generation 6 (1910): 495–6.
Helene Stöcker, “Von neuer Ethik,” Mutterschutz 2 (1906): 3.
Helene Stöcker, “Staatlicher Gebärzwang oder Rassenhygiene?” Die neue Generation 10 (1914): 144
Alfred Ploetz, “Bund für Mutterschutz,” Archiv für Rassen-und Gesellschaftsbiologie 2 (1905): 164–6
Helene Stöcker, “Staatlicher Gebärzwang oder Rassenhygiene?” Die neue Generation 10 (1914): 139.
Edward Ross Dickinson, “Reflections on Feminism and Monism in the Kaiserreich, 1900–1913,” Central European History 34 (2001): 191–230.
Alfred Ploetz, “Neo-Malthusianism and Race Hygiene,” in Problems in Eugenics: Report of Proceedings of the First International Eugenics Congress, vol. 2 (London: Eugenics Education Society, 1913).
Henriette Fürth, “Der Neomalthusianismus und die Soziologie,” Sozialistische Monatshefte 17 (1911): 1665–72.
Ann Taylor Allen, “Feminism and Eugenics in Germany and Britain, 1900–1948: A Comparative Perspective,” German Studies Review 23 (2000): 477–505
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Max von Gruber to Alfred Grotjahn, June 9, 1910, in Alfred Grotjahn papers; Alfred Grotjahn, “Das Problem der Entartung,” Archiv für soziale Hygiene 6 (1910): 80.
Ignaz Kaup, “Was kosten die minderwertigen Elemente dem Staat und der Gesellschaft?” Archiv für Rassen-und Gesellschaftsbiologie 10 (1913): 747.
Paul Näcke, “Die Kastration bei gewissen Klassen von Degenerirten als ein wirksamer socialer Schutz,” Archiv für Kriminal—Anthroplogie und Kriminalistik 3 (1900): 58–84.
Ernst Rüdin, “Der Alkohol im Lebensprozess der Rasse,” Politisch-Anthropologische Revue 2 (1903-04): 553–66.
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© 2004 Richard Weikart
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Weikart, R. (2004). Controlling Reproduction: Overturning Traditional Sexual Morality. In: From Darwin to Hitler. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-10986-6_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-10986-6_8
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