William McDougall Quotes
Eugenia
McDougall, a Harvard Professor, was active in a number of pseudo-sciences including Parapsychology and Eugenics where he developed a racist “explanation: of human talent—see Quotation 643953. His most extreme creation was that of a his proposed breeding colony of “Eugenia“ a separate protectorate within the United States, in which the best and brightest would propagate a superior stock. Eugenia would be at once a university and a stud farm. Raised as “aristocrats” in the tradition of “noblesse oblige,” (Description is that of Nancy Isenberg.) His “Utopian” colony never was implemented, but it was talked and written about amongst the “Eugenics” enthusiasts.
McDougall, William. Is America Safe for Democracy? Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921, p. 216.
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This quotation illustrates the extreme distortion of even observed evidence that many racists of the early 20th Century went through. Mcdougall was a Harvard professor and was familiar with the intellectual accomplishments of a number of Blacks including W. E. B. Du Bois who also was a Harvard man who was even superior to most whites at that institution. However his racial ideology could not possibly allow that Negroes could be as accomplished as some of them was. His “creative” explanation given here is that all accomplished Blacks must have had white blood, because only white blood could produce such genius. Note also the emphasis that he places on the historical inability of Negroes to form a nation. McDougall knew little about history as there were many Negro nations created from ancient Biblical times throughs the 19th century. Shaka who not only built a Zulu nation but turned it into an expansionist empire contesting England in the Anglo Zulu Wars of the late 19th century as both entires fought to see which would colonize and dominate much of the South of Africa,
Marcus Porcius Cato. This quotation has had two different interpretations over time. One was that women if they received equality of treatment and voting would have an advantage for they also had their traditional “feminine wiles” and their sexuality, hence would dominate men. The second was a also a warning but based on the fact that women were superior in many ways, and given an equal chance, would excel men. The later interpretation is argued by some who point to the 2011 American data that shows more females than males graduating from high school and college, and females outnumber males in medical, law and several other professional schools. With the exception of a few Roman men, most heeded Cato’s warning and never took a chance on female equality.
Most modern feminists would not agree with this quotation by one of the great early femonists.
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- Born: June 22, 1871
- Died: November 29, 1938
- Nationality: American
- Profession: Psychologist
William McDougall FRS was an early 20th century psychologist who spent the first part of his career in the United Kingdom and the latter part in the United States. He wrote a number of influential textbooks, and was important in the development of the theory of instinct and of social psychology in the English-speaking world.
