Found this interesting historical timeline of eugenics. It starts with Sparta (those guys again…) and ends with cloned sheep. Something ironic about that…
To associate the term “eugenics” with the ancient Greeks is a bit of a misnomer (even though the word comes from the Greek for “well-born”) — what Plato discusses in the Republic is more social control than eugenics. Actually, understood historically, it’s neither. Eugenics (as noted here) only has meaning in relation to the rise of modern, industrial nation-state structures. Without that framework, it couldn’t thrive. It is, after all, not clearly distinguishable from the 19th century institutionalization of madness and mental illness so scathingly criticized by Foucault and others…
Eugenics seems passe. This may not be so. In fact, eugenics is transforming rapidly (critics talk of “liberal eugenics”), and through its association with our (now daily) revolutions in genetic and reproductive technology, looms menacingly over our age. But we know better than all those people a hundred years ago, so it’s OK.
Besides, now we’re on the cusp of being able to clone Spartans. That’s great…Don’t you think?
September 20, 2007 at 1:10 am |
[...] poorly understood issue, and one I’ve talked about before. For those who might be curious to do some digging, I’m also including another [patented] [...]