Francis Galton

1822-1911 · British · Differential Psychology and Eugenics

Some people hate the very name of statistics, but I find them full of beauty and interest.

Francis Galton was a Victorian polymath — explorer, meteorologist, statistician, and the founder of eugenics — who set out to bring the measuring rod and the calculus of probability to the study of human beings. A younger half-cousin of Charles Darwin, he read the *Origin of Species* as a summons: if variation and inheritance governed the bodily form of animals, then they governed the mental and moral qualities of men, and these too could be counted, correlated, and improved.

Topics Francis Galton addresses

• eugenics
• hereditary genius
• nature and nurture
• regression toward the mean
• correlation and co-relation
• the law of error and the normal distribution
• anthropometry
• mental imagery and the breakfast-table survey
• composite portraiture
• the comparative worth of different races
• the measurement of natural ability
• the twin study
• the questionnaire method
• fingerprint identification
• statistical study of heredity
• the anthropometric laboratory
• positive eugenics and marriage
• the inheritance of talent and character
• biometry
• reversion and the ancestral type
• the efficacy of prayer
• individual differences
• genius and eminence
• the wisdom of the crowd (vox populi)

Questions to put to Francis Galton

Eugenics and the Improvement of the Race

• What exactly do you mean by eugenics?
• How would you actually encourage the able to have more children?
• Why do you think improving the human race is a duty rather than an interference?
• How do you respond to the worry that eugenics could justify cruelty or coercion?
• What's the difference between improving livestock and improving humanity?

Hereditary Genius and the Nature-Nurture Question

• How did you actually show that genius runs in families?
• Why can't education and opportunity explain the clustering of eminence you found?
• What do you mean when you say nature contributes more than nurture?
• How do you account for the genius who rises from humble origins?
• Can you explain what you mean by a cerebral constitution?
• Why did you invent the phrase 'nature and nurture'?

Race, Ability, and the Hierarchy of Peoples

• How did you rank the races by natural ability?
• What evidence convinced you that these differences are inherited rather than environmental?
• Why did you place the ancient Athenians above modern Europeans?
• How do you respond to the charge that your racial rankings reflect prejudice rather than science?
• What did you observe in your African travels that shaped your views on race?

Regression, Correlation, and the Statistical Method

• What is regression toward the mean?
• How did you discover that children of exceptional parents tend to be less exceptional?
• What do you mean by correlation?
• Why is correlation more useful than tracing individual pedigrees?
• How does the law of error apply to human traits?

Anthropometry and the Measurement of Human Faculties

• What did you measure in your Anthropometric Laboratory?
• Why did you think keener senses would indicate a more powerful intellect?
• What did you discover about mental imagery in your breakfast-table study?
• How do you defend the idea that mental powers are measurable quantities?
• What did fingerprints teach you about individual uniqueness?

Exploration, Meteorology, and the Art of Travel

• What took you to tropical South Africa as a young man?
• How did you discover the anticyclone?
• What practical advice did you give in The Art of Travel?
• How did your cousin Darwin's work redirect your life?

Converse with Francis Galton on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Francis Galton's own writing, cited to the page.