Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races) (1853–1855) by Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau was intended as a work of philosophical enquiry into decline and degeneration. It is today considered as one of the earliest examples of scientific racism.
Expanding upon Boulainvilliers' use of ethnography to defend the Ancien Regime against the claims of the Third Estate, de Gobineau aimed for an explanatory system universal in scope: namely, that race is the primary force determining world events. Using scientific disciplines as varied as linguistics and anthropology, de Gobineau divides the human species into three major groupings, white, yellow and black, claiming to demonstrate that "history springs only from contact with the white races." Among the white races, he distinguishes the Aryan race as the pinnacle of human development, comprising the basis of all European aristocracies. However, inevitable miscegenation led to the 'downfall of civilizations'.
Read more about An Essay On The Inequality Of The Human Races: Background To The Book, Gobineau and The Bible, Superiority of The Aryans, Translation, Influence
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