1. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: THE GALTON-PEARSON APPROACH.
- Author
-
Hankins, Frank H.
- Subjects
EQUALITY ,INDIVIDUAL differences ,POLITICAL doctrines ,SUFFRAGE ,CRITICISM ,VALUES (Ethics) ,DEMOCRACY - Abstract
From the beginning of the modern democratic movement the doctrine of an inherent equality among men has been persistent. While the assertion that "all men are created equal" as set forth in the famous Declaration has not been taken literally by the majority of informed writers, it has, nevertheless, been held by many as a fundamental article of faith. As such it has been ill-defined; facts obviously in conflict with it have been passed over in silence or in scorn. Being considered essential to the ideals of democracy, it has been, like other doctrines which are fervently avowed with the weighty emotional values of religious mysticism, immune to criticism. Its constant reiteration has been the chief evidence of its patent validity. Even among men of scientific and philosophical training, especially in the United States, a deeply grounded faith in democracy has carried with it belief in the essential equality of men. The doctrine, semi-religious in itself, has had a powerful religious sanction in the Christian hope of human brotherhood. Consequently, under its impulsion have developed many of the most characteristic features of present civilization. The suffrage has been made universal; even the immemorial prejudice of sex inferiority dissolved before the mystical potency of egalitarian ideas.
- Published
- 1925
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