ダーウィンの人種主義
Racism in Charles Darwin
ダーウィンの人種主義
Racism in Charles Darwin
"CHAPTER II. COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. The difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest savage, immense — Certain instincts in common — The emotions—Curiosity—Imitation—Attention—Memory—Imagination — Reason — Progressive improvement — Tools and weapons used by animals — Language — Self-consciousness — Sense of beauty—Belief in God, spiritual agencies, superstitions, p.34-69. CHAPTER III. COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS—continued. The moral sense—Fundamental proposition—The qualities of social animals — Origin of sociability — Struggle between opposed instincts— Man a social animal—The more enduring social instincts conquer other less persistent instincts—The social virtues alone regarded by savages—The self-regarding virtues acquired at a later stage of development—The importance of the judgment of the members of the same community on conduct—Transmission of moral tendencies—Summary Page 70-106"
| "But the sense of
smell is of extremely slight service, if any, even to savages, in whom
it is generally more highly developed than in the civilised races. It
does not warn them of danger, nor guide them to their food; nor does it
prevent the Esquimaux from sleeping in the most fetid atmosphere, nor
many savages from eating half-putrid meat. Those who believe in the
principle of gradual evolution, will not readily admit that this sense
in its present state was originally acquired by man, as he now exists.
No doubt he inherits the power in an enfeebled and so far rudimentary
condition, from some early progenitor, to whom it was highly
serviceable and by whom it was continually used. We can thus perhaps
understand how it is, as Dr. Maudsley has truly remarked,27 that the
sense of smell in man " is singu- " larly effective in recalling
vividly the ideas and images " of forgotten scenes and places;" for we
see in those animals, which have this sense highly developed, such as
dogs and horses, that old recollections of persons and places are
strongly associated with their odour" p..24 |
しかし、嗅
覚は、文明人よりも発達している野蛮人にとっても、役に立つとすれば、極めてわずかなものである。また、エスキモー人が最も腐敗した空気の中で眠るのを防
いだり、多くの原住民が腐敗した肉を食べるのを防いだりすることもない。漸進的進化の原理を信じる人々は、現在のような状態のこの感覚が、もともと人間が
獲得したものだとはなかなか認めないだろう。間違いなく、この感覚は、この感覚が非常に有用であり、この感覚を使い続けていた初期の先祖から、弱体化し
た、今のところ初歩的な状態で受け継いだのである。このため、モーズリー博士が述べているように、人間の嗅覚が「忘れていた場面や場 所の記憶やイメージを鮮明に呼び起こすのに非常に有効である」ことが理解できるだろう。 |
| "No doubt the difference in this respect is enormous, even if we compare the mind of one of the lowest savages, who has no words to express any number higher than four, and who uses no abstract terms for the commonest objects or affections,1 with that of the most highly organised ape. The difference would, no doubt, still remain immense, even if one of the higher apes had been improved or civilised as much as a dog has been in comparison with its parent-form, the wolf or jackal. The Fuegians rank amongst the lowest barbarians; but I was continually struck with surprise how closely the three natives on board H.M.S. "Beagle," who had lived some years in England and could talk a little English, resembled us in disposition and in most of our mental faculties." p.34. | 四つ
以上の数を表す言葉を持たず、最も一般的な対象や感情に対して抽象的な用語を使わない最下層の 野蛮人1
の心と、最も高度に組織化された類人猿の心を比べても、この点での差は非常に大きいに違い
ない。たとえ高等類人猿が、犬がその親であるオオカミやジャッカルと比較して改良され文明化されたとしても、その差はまだ計り知れないだろう。しかし私は、英国に何年か滞在し、少し英語を話すことができたH.M.S.「ビーグル号」の3人の原住民が、性格や精神面のほとんどで私たちと似ていることに、常に驚きを感じていた。 |
| "Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition between a barbarian, such as the man described by the old navigator Byron, who dashed his child on the rocks for dropping a basket of sea-urchins, and a Howard or Clarkson; and in intellect, between a savage who does not use any abstract terms, and a Newton or Shakspeare. Differences of this kind between the highest men of the highest races and the lowest savages, are connected by the finest gradations. Therefore it is possible that they might pass and be developed into each other." p.35 | また、昔の航海士バイロンが描いたような、ウニの入った籠を落としたた
めに自分の子供を岩に投げつけたような野蛮人と、ハワードやクラークソンとの間の道徳的気質の違いもわずかなものではない。また、知性においても、抽象用
語を使わない野蛮人と、ニュートンやシャックスピアの間の違いもある。この種の違いは、最も高い人種の最も高い人間と最も低い未開人の間で、最も細かい階
調で結ばれている。したがって、このような相違は、互いに通過し、発展する可能性がある。 |
| "Self-consciousness, Individuality, Abstraction, General Ideas, &c.—It would be useless to attempt discussing these high faculties, which, according to several recent writers, make the sole and complete distinction between man and the brutes, for hardly two authors agree in their definitions. Such faculties could not have been fully developed in man until his mental powers had advanced to a high standard, and this implies the use of a perfect language. No one supposes that one of the lower animals reflects whence he comes or whither he goes,— what is death or what is life, and so forth. But can we feel sure that an old dog with an excellent memory and some power of imagination, as shewn by his dreams, never reflects on Ms past pleasures in the chase? and this would be a form of self-consciousness. On the other hand, as Büchner48 has remarked, how little can the hard-worked wife of a degraded Australian savage, who uses hardly any abstract words and cannot count above four, exert her self-consciousness, or reflect on the nature of her own existence." p.62. | 自己意識、個性、抽象化、一般的な考えなど -
最近の作家の何人かによれば、人間と獣を唯一かつ完全に区別するこれらの高い能力について論じようとするのは無駄であろう。このような能力は、人間の精神
力が高い水準に達しない限り、完全に発達することはできず、このことは、完全な言語の使用を意味する。下等動物の一人が、自分がどこから来てどこへ行くの
か、つまり、死とは何か、生とは何か、などを考えていると仮定する人はいない。しかし、優れた記憶力を持ち、夢で示されるような想像力を持つ老犬が、過去
の追跡の喜びを決して振り返らないと断言できるだろうか。 これは自意識の一形態であろう。一方、ビュヒナー48
が指摘するように、抽象的な言葉をほとんど使わず、4 つ以上 の数を数えることができないオーストラリアの劣悪な野蛮人の勤勉な妻は、自己意識を発揮
することも、自分自身の存在の本質について考察することもほとんどできないだろう。 |
| "The taste for the beautiful, at least as far as female beauty is concerned, is not of a special nature in the human mind; for it differs widely in the different races of man, as will hereafter be shewn, and is not quite the same even in the different nations of the same race. Judging from the hideous ornaments and the equally hideous music admired by most savages, it might be urged that their æsthetic faculty was not so highly developed as in certain animals, for instance, in birds. Obviously no animal would be capable of admiring such scenes as the heavens at night, a beautiful landscape, or refined music; but such high tastes, depending as they do on culture and complex associations, are not enjoyed by barbarians or by uneducated persons."p.64 | 美に対する嗜好は、少なくとも女性の美に関する限り、人間の心には特別な性質はない。なぜなら、これから明らかにするように、人間の異なる人種には大きな違いがあり、同じ人種の異なる国でさえ、まったく同じではない。ほ
とんどの未開人が賞賛する醜い装飾品や同様に醜い音楽から判断すると、彼らの審美的能力は、ある種の動物、例えば鳥類ほど高度には発達していないと主張さ
れるかもしれない。もちろん、夜の天空や美しい風景、洗練された音楽などを鑑賞できる動物はいない。しかし、こうした高い嗜好は、文化や複雑な関連性に依
存しており、野蛮人や無教育の人が楽しむことはないのである。 |
| "Belief in God—Religion.—There is no evidence that man was aboriginally endowed with the ennobling belief in the existence of an Omnipotent God. On the contrary there is ample evidence, derived not from hasty travellers, but from men who have long resided with savages, that numerous races have existed and still exist, who have no idea of one or more gods, and who have no words in their languages to express such an idea.51 The question is of course wholly distinct from that higher one, whether there exists a Creator and Ruler of the universe; and this has been answered in the affirmative by the highest intellects that have ever lived."p.65. | 神への信仰-宗教-人間がもともと全能の神の存在という崇高な信仰を備えていたという証拠はない。それどころか、急ぎ足の旅行者からではなく、未開人と長く暮らしてきた人々から得た十分な証拠がある。1つ以上の神という考えを持たず、そのような考えを表現する言葉を持たない民族が、過去にも現在にも数多く存在している。もちろん、この問題は、宇宙の創造主や支配者が存在するかという高い問題とは全く別であり、これまでに生きた最高の知性によって肯定的に回答されてきた。 |
+++
Links
リンク
文献
その他の情報
