Darwin and Hegel: Views from the Past

G.W.F. Hegel’s “The African Character”

• Focuses on the fundamental differences between Africans and Europeans as percieved in the Nineteenth century
• Claims that “negroes” lack religion, and thus humanity
• No conception of anything higher than themselves, which he views as a very negative attribute
• Hegel also discusses how African people during this time enslaved and sold each other (even their relatives) and uses this as evidence that they are morally on a lower plane than whites.
• Talks about traditions of African tribes, which he views as barbaric.
• Closes his argument by stating European slavery (and its gradual abolition) is a good thing for the Africans, so they can acknowledge a “higher being” and that immediately ending slavery would have been a regression.
• Finally, he claims Africa is historically irrelevant and that all the great societies of Africa were merely “not part of the African spirit.”

Darwin’s “On the Races of Man”

• Talks about the intrinsic similarities of man amongst the many outward differences.
• Gives a much more objective account that deals mostly with observed evidence of difference between the races of man.
• Claims that all men share a common ancestor, thus meaning that at most, different races should be considered “sub-species.”
• States that natural selection should be held accountable for the differences along the spectrum of humankind, not inferiority or superiority of certain ways of life.
• Sums up his argument with the quote “[t]he great variability of all the external differences between the races of man, likewise indicates that the cannot be of much importance.”