Scholars have thoroughly documented and continue to cite the misrepresentations of Darwin’s thought put forward by the thread of social Darwinism that took hold between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even though these misconceptions quickly proved a scientific dead end. In contrast, the questions about the differences/similarities between men and women raised by a coeval thread of Darwinian feminism remain largely ignored, even though such questions had already generated important new avenues of research in the wake of Darwin’s publications. By reconstructing the history and functions, both political and scientific, of Darwinian feminism, we can trace an intellectual journey from emancipationist and evolutionist women and men of the Victorian, Liberal (in Italy) or Gilded Age (in the United States) that leads to significant new results: for instance, the findings of recent neuroscience that have definitively deconstructed the myth of “male” and “female” brains, whatever this might mean in different cultures.

“Darwinismo femminista”. Tra fatti scientifici e principi di autorità

govoni, paola
Primo
2020

Abstract

Scholars have thoroughly documented and continue to cite the misrepresentations of Darwin’s thought put forward by the thread of social Darwinism that took hold between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even though these misconceptions quickly proved a scientific dead end. In contrast, the questions about the differences/similarities between men and women raised by a coeval thread of Darwinian feminism remain largely ignored, even though such questions had already generated important new avenues of research in the wake of Darwin’s publications. By reconstructing the history and functions, both political and scientific, of Darwinian feminism, we can trace an intellectual journey from emancipationist and evolutionist women and men of the Victorian, Liberal (in Italy) or Gilded Age (in the United States) that leads to significant new results: for instance, the findings of recent neuroscience that have definitively deconstructed the myth of “male” and “female” brains, whatever this might mean in different cultures.
2020
govoni, paola
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/775220
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