The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism and Anthropology in France

Description

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Introduction:The End of the Soul; 1. The Society of Mutual Autopsy and the Liturgy of Death; 2. Evangelical Atheism and the Rise of French Anthropology; 3. Scientific Materialism and the Public Response; 4. Careers in Anthropology and the Bertillon Family; 5. No Soul, No Morality: Vacher de Lapouge; 6. Body and Soul: Léonce Manouvrier and the Disappearing Numbers; 7. The Leftist Critique of Determinist Science; 8. Coda; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.;On October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, both men and women included, joined together to form an unusual group, The Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. The idea was that, after death, they would dissect one another and (hopefully) show a direct relationship between brain shapes and sizes and the character, abilities and intelligence of individuals. This strange scientific pact, and indeed what we have come to think of as anthropology, which the group's members helped to develop, had its genesis in aggressive, evangelical atheism. With this.