DOI
10.5840/philtoday201054Supplement66
Abstract
At his death at age one hundred in 2005, Ernst Mayr was hailed as the greatest evolutionary biologist of the twentieth century. His definition of species, published in 1942 in Systematics and the Origin of Species and known as the “biological species concept,” is familiar to every tenth grader: “Species are groups of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups.” That definition, together with Mayr’s and Theodosius Dobzhansky’s theory of speciation, enabled the integration of modern genetics and Darwinian evolutionary theory. In this paper I will argue that it imported racism into the heart of modern genetics as well.
Document Type
Post-print Article
Publication Date
2010
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2010, Philosophy Documentation Center. Article first published online: 2010. DOI: 10.5840/philtoday201054Supplement66
The definitive version is available at: 10.5840/philtoday201054Supplement66
Full citation:
McWhorter, Ladelle. "Racism, Eugenics, and Ernst Mayr’s Account of Species." Philosophy Today 54, no. Supplement (2010): 200-07. doi:10.5840/philtoday201054Supplement66.
Recommended Citation
McWhorter, Ladelle, "Racism, Eugenics, and Ernst Mayr’s Account of Species" (2010). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 32.
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/philosophy-faculty-publications/32
Included in
Biology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons