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Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, ou Mémoires intéressants pour servir à l'histoire de l'espèce humaine: Par Mr. de P***

1769 Subjects: Colonies, Natural history, Philosophy, Politics and government Forms: Essays Translation Status: Source-text French Berlin URL

Contributions

Mr. de P*** (Cornelius de Pauw)
author
Georg Jakob Decker
publisher

Related resources

has translation
Selections from 'Les recherches philosophiques sur les Américains of M. Pauw': By Mr. W*** translation
has translation
Ricerche filosofiche sopra gli Americani di P. translation

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Notes

The publication of De Pauw's polemical essay, Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains hit a raw Enlightenment nerve and aroused plenty of controversy at the time. De Pauw used contemporary scientific theories, including the work of the comte de Buffon, to convey an image of the Americas, including its flora, fauna and peoples as stunted, lazy and degenerate, partly as a result of its wet and cold climate. In consequence, the mental capacities of its European settlers would also decline. Only agriculture, and the mastery of nature, could lead the New World back into civilization.

At the same time he also criticised European imperial behaviour, especially the initial Spanish conquest and their untrustworthy accounts. These accusations of inferiority did not go unchallenged, and European settlers' descendants sensitive to the negative undertones of De Pauw’s essay fiercely contested it, including Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia (1785).

For a detailed analysis of the degeneracy theory and its arguments, see Antonello Gerbi, The Dispute of the New World – The History of a Polemic, 1750-1900 (1955). See also Henry Ward Church, 'Corneille de Pauw, and the Controversy over his Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains' (PMLA, March 1936, vol.51, no.1).