Autor: Wilson Antonio Frezzatti Júnior

Resumo:

A construção da oposição total entre as teorias evolucionistas de Jean-Baptiste Lamarck e de Charles Darwin foi utilizada, em fins do século xix e início do século xx, para classificar autores que escreviam sobre a evolução, mesmo aqueles que não eram cientistas. Claire Richter, em Nietzsche e as teorias biológicas contemporâneas, afirma que o lamarckismo de Nietzsche é muito pronunciado, e, para isso, distingue o que é propriamente darwiniano e propriamente lamarckiano. Em nosso trabalho, pretendemos entender por que essa distinção foi aplicada a um filósofo como Nietzsche. A chave da questão está, para nós, na diferença que a autora faz entre a seleção natural e a herança dos caracteres adquiridos e na relação que ela estabelece entre essas noções e o eugenismo. O objetivo de Richter é transformar Nietzsche em um dos principais e primeiros defensores do eugenismo. O seu esforço em mostrar que o pensamento nietzschiano é lamarckista está a serviço da divulgação de ideias eugenistas. A herança dos caracteres adquiridos, por sua relativa rapidez em alterar os seres vivos, pode embasar e justificar ações educativas e sociais para melhoria da raça.The construction of the total opposition between the Lamarckian and the Darwinian evolutionary theories was employed to classify authors scientists or not _ who wrote about evolution in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Claire Richter, in Nietzsche et les theories biologiques contemporaines (1911), argues that Nietzsche's Lamarckism is very pronounced, and, for this, she distinguishes what is properly Darwinian or Lamarckian. In our article, we want to understand why this distinction was applied to a philosopher like Nietzsche. The key issue is the difference made by Richter between the natural selection and the inheritance of acquired characteristics and the relationship that she establishes between these notions and the eugenics. Her goal is to show Nietzsche to be an early and leading advocate of eugenics. Her effort to demonstrate that Nietzsche's thought is Lamarckian serves for the dissemination of eugenicists ideas. The inheritance of acquired characteristics can support and justify the social and educational measures to improve the race, because it is faster than the natural selection to modify living beings.

Abstract:

The construction of the total opposition between the Lamarckian and the Darwinian evolutionary theories was employed to classify authors scientists or not _ who wrote about evolution in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Claire Richter, in Nietzsche et les theories biologiques contemporaines (1911), argues that Nietzsche's Lamarckism is very pronounced, and, for this, she distinguishes what is properly Darwinian or Lamarckian. In our article, we want to understand why this distinction was applied to a philosopher like Nietzsche. The key issue is the difference made by Richter between the natural selection and the inheritance of acquired characteristics and the relationship that she establishes between these notions and the eugenics. Her goal is to show Nietzsche to be an early and leading advocate of eugenics. Her effort to demonstrate that Nietzsche's thought is Lamarckian serves for the dissemination of eugenicists ideas. The inheritance of acquired characteristics can support and justify the social and educational measures to improve the race, because it is faster than the natural selection to modify living beings.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1678-31662011000400004

Texto Completo: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1678-31662011000400004&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=es

Palavras-Chave: Darwinismo,Eugenismo, Evolução, Lamarckismo,S