More from Joel Schneider...he is on a huge roll at his web page since the first of the year
Francis Galton Reading Recommendations
// Assessing Psyche, Engaging Gauss, Seeking Sophia
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Francis Galton Reading Recommendations
// Assessing Psyche, Engaging Gauss, Seeking Sophia
Here are some sources that begin to explain the positive side of my ambivalence about Galton:
| Selected publication | Comments |
|---|---|
| Hereditary genius (Galton, 1869) | Galton attempts to show that talent is hereditary. The methods are crude but entertaining. Hundreds of mini-biographies, strange details, and curious asides (One of many: William Pitt's talented niece, Lady Hester Stanhope ended her days in Syria, dressing as a man and claiming supernatural powers.). Sarah Austen is given credit for Jane's novels. |
| Inquiries into human faculty and its development (Galton, 1883) | This book is a romp through every weird place the human mind can go. If you like that sort of thing, you will like this very much. |
| "Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature" (Galton, 1886) | It is amusing how much detail about statistics needed to be explained explicitly in 1886. The glorious scatterplot alone makes this article worth a look. |
| Memories of my life (Galton, 1908) | Galton's mind was sharp right up to the end of his life. Filled with anecdotes, gossip, and rich humor. Fun story about the aftermath of the Sarah/Jane Austen fiasco. Googling the quotations that Galton inserts without sourcing makes for hours of entertainment. There is also much pathos here as well. |
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