Chapter 6: Background to the Eugenics Movement and Influences on Friedrich Hayek” in Robert Leeson, editor. Hayek: A Collaborative Biography Part X: Eugenics, Cultural Evolution, and the Fatal Conceit.

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Date

2017

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Palgrave-Macmillan. Cham, Switzerland, 2017.

Abstract

The first part of this chapter describes eugenics, the eugenics movement and its leaders in the United States, Great Britain and Germany through the late 1930s when Friedrich Hayek was formulating his theories. The second part focuses on Hayek and how the topic through his culture, family, friends and colleagues may have influenced him. The research questions for this chapter are: did Hayek support eugenics, and in particular Nordic superiority and anti-Semitic negative eugenics; and did his eugenicist colleagues influence him in the development of his theories? It was concluded, based on the information available, that Hayek was not directly involved in any aspect of the eugenics movement nor did he write on the subject in any eugenic journals or other publications. Hayek was against eugenics practices as illustrated by his opposition to state controlled central planning and social engineering programs which included eugenics. Eugenicist colleagues, family, friends and his environment appear to have had some influence on the development of his economic theories.

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Keywords

Friedrich Hayek, eugenics, the eugenics movement and its leaders in the United States, Great Britain and Germany. Hayek was opposed to eugenics and the movement but it did have some influence his economic theories.

Citation

Engs, Ruth Clifford “Chapter 6: Background to the Eugenics Movement and Influences on Friedrich Hayek” in Robert Leeson, editor. Hayek: A Collaborative Biography Part X: Eugenics, Cultural Evolution, and the Fatal Conceit. Palgrave-Macmillan. Cham, Switzerland, 2017. This is the final draft retrieved from IUScholarworks Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/2022/26362

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This chapter is part of "Friedrich Hayek: A Collaborative Biography Part X: Eugenics, Cultural Evolution, and the Fatal Conceit. Published by Palgrave-Macmillan. Cham, Switzerland, 2017.

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Rights

Rights: This work is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license. For permission to reuse this work for commercial purposes, please contact Dr. Ruth Engs or the IU Archives. NOTE: A finding aid for published papers and manuscripts can be found at the IU Archive: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/view?doc.view=entire_text&docId=InU-Ar-VAC0859

Type

Book chapter