Stephen Jay Gould "The Geometer of Race"

Stephen Jay Gould

1. Main Points
Gould argues that the scholars should have responsibility what he or she said. He uses Blumenbach's example.   Blumenbach, who lived from latter half of 18th century to the first half of 19th century, is a German anatomist and a naturalist. He divided people into 5 groups; the Caucasian, the American, the Malay, the Ethiopian and the Mongolia by his subjective "beauty" value. Although he himself was not a racism person, his theory was connected to racial discrimination. To prevent this situation, Gould argues that Blumenbach should have responsibility to his theory because Blumenbach was shut up himself in an ivory tower.

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

2. Reaction
As written on the text whose author is Meiland and which we read at the beginning of the ELP in spring term, a scientist should keep relation with society intentionally. However, I think that there should not be any environment where truth cannot be described dignifiedly just because he or she is conscious of the influence on his or her opinion. As far as Blumenbach, he was completely wrong as a result. I know that because I live 200 years later of him. He should have had critical thinking. However, He possibly was a kind of critical thinker because he was not a racist, when putting the age when he lived into consideration.