Enlightenment, Scientific Racism and Slavery : A Historical Point

This paper addresses a destructive and regrettable development in western European thought. The passages quoted here are frequently blatant in their opinion and no doubt offensive. It is the intent of this paper to examine the unfounded and often wildly speculative origin of the so-called "scientific racism" through which non-white peoples were "justifiably" enslaved or oppressed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This paper dares quote such opinions in the belief that in understanding and evaluating the origin, one may more accurately and thoroughly respond to these notions which are echoed, if not shouted, by various segments of contemporary culture.