The Science of Sympathy

Morality, Evolution, and Victorian Civilization

Rob Boddice (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

198 Seiten

2016
University of Illinois Press (Verlag)
978-0-252-08205-4 (ISBN)

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In his Descent of Man, Charles Darwin placed sympathy at the crux of morality in a civilized human society. His idea buttressed the belief that white, upper-class, educated men deserved their sense of superiority by virtue of good breeding. It also implied that societal progress could be steered by envisioning a new blueprint for sympathy that redefined moral actions carried out in sympathy's name. Rob Boddice joins a daring intellectual history of sympathy to a portrait of how the first Darwinists defined and employed it. As Boddice shows, their interpretations of Darwin's ideas sparked a cacophonous discourse intent on displacing previous notions of sympathy. Scientific and medical progress demanded that "cruel" practices like vivisection and compulsory vaccination be seen as moral for their ultimate goal of alleviating suffering. Some even saw the so-called unfit--natural targets of sympathy--as a danger to society and encouraged procreation by the "fit" alone. Right or wrong, these early Darwinists formed a moral economy that acted on a new system of ethics, reconceptualized obligations, and executed new duties. Boddice persuasively argues that the bizarre, even dangerous formulations of sympathy they invented influence society and civilization in the present day.

Rob Boddice works at the Department of History and Cultural Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. His books include Edward Jenner and Pain: A Very Short Introduction.

Erscheinungsdatum	10.12.2016
Reihe/Serie	History of Emotions
Zusatzinfo	10 black and white photographs
Verlagsort	Baltimore
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	286 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution
ISBN-10	0-252-08205-2 / 0252082052
ISBN-13	978-0-252-08205-4 / 9780252082054
Zustand	Neuware