Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics & Making of Post-Classical Economics

Authors

Sandra J. Peart, University of RichmondFollow
David M. Levy

DOI

10.1080/1042771032000114728

Abstract

The question we propose to address is how did economics move from the classical period characterized by the hardest possible doctrine of initial human homogeneity—all the observed differences among people arise from incentives, luck, and history¹—to become comfortable with accounts of human behavior which alleged foundational differences among and within races of people? (Darity 1995) In this paper, we shall argue that early British eugenics thinkers racialized economics in the post-classical period.²

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 2003 Cambridge University Press. This article first appeared in Journal of the History of Economic Thought 25:3 (2003), 261-288.

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Recommended Citation

Peart, Sandra J., and David M. Levy. "Denying Human Homogeneity: Eugenics & The Making of Post-Classical Economics." Journal of the History of Economic Thought 25, no. 03 (2003): 261-88. doi:10.1080/1042771032000114728.