Hereditary Genius by Sir Francis Galton audiobook.

Genre: science

In Hereditary Genius, Victorian polymath Sir Francis Galton sets out to answer a provocative question: why do extraordinary ability and public distinction seem to cluster in certain families? Drawing on biographies, genealogies, and public records, Galton surveys judges, statesmen, military commanders, scientists, poets, and other eminent figures, tracing patterns of achievement across generations. He argues that natural ability is unevenly distributed, that it can be studied with the same seriousness as physical traits, and that social institutions often hide or distort what talent might otherwise become. Along the way, he proposes early quantitative approaches to comparing individuals, wrestles with the influence of education and environment, and challenges popular assumptions about merit and opportunity in modern society. The book is both a window into the origins of statistical thinking about human variation and a revealing artifact of its era's anxieties about progress, class, and national strength. Whether read as pioneering social science, contentious cultural history, or a cautionary study of how data can be used to justify ideology, Galton's work invites listeners to examine how societies define genius and what they believe should follow from it.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:34:52) Chapter 01

(00:42:07) Chapter 02

(00:54:53) Chapter 03

(01:34:22) Chapter 04

(01:56:57) Chapter 05

(02:02:27) Chapter 06

(02:58:17) Chapter 07

(03:07:27) Chapter 08

(03:28:39) Chapter 09

(03:43:39) Chapter 10

(03:51:21) Chapter 11

(04:03:01) Chapter 12

(04:06:47) Chapter 13

(04:09:32) Chapter 14

(04:13:04) Chapter 15

(05:04:52) Chapter 16

(05:07:50) Chapter 17

(05:15:35) Chapter 18

(05:17:20) Chapter 19

(05:51:37) Chapter 20

(06:18:45) Chapter 21

(06:40:32) Chapter 22

(07:04:04) Chapter 23

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