Nurture Quotes
At the time, many scientists and intellectuals thought erroneously—see related quotations—that hybrids would be inferior humans. What makes this quotation memorable is that although he acknowledged that empirically, mixed race people (human hybrids) were inferior, of offered an explanation that did not violate sound genetic science as most others did. He concluded that sociologically whites and black who would intermarry or interbreed would generally not come from the top echelons of either race. Therefore the lower half of each race would more likely produce offspring and provide them with an environment that was not optimum so genetics and nurture worked against the mulatto. At the time that may well have been so, and perhaps until recently it was so forth the majority of crossbreeds of many societies.
He was the intellectual antithesis of Francis Galton and the Eugenicists in the Nature vs Nurture debates.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
There were some people at the time who believed that by means of effort and following moral precepts there would be an equality of achievement. There were also many who began to observe that much of the differences between individuals were are result of environment—opportunity for education, socialization and other factors. Science is still trying to determine the relative causal contributions to individual differences of genetics and environment.
This quotation is important for two reasons. First, it appears to be the first use of the nature-nurture words to discuss this concept. Second, this “conclusion” started one of the longest running scientific debates in biology—nurture vs nature.
