Hyperpoliticized sciences

Abstract

“Hyperpoliticized sciences” are theories characterized by having a close compatibility with a reigning political ideology, and therefore often strive to — and sometimes receive — state support and enforcement, becoming official sciences. The two classic examples are both associated with twentieth-century dictatorships: Aryan Physics in Nazi Germany; and Lysenkoism in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The former claimed that relativity and quantum theory were “Jewish physics” that needed to be eliminated and replaced with classical physics from the previous century. Despite the ideological fervor of its proponents and the regime itself, the latter disregarded the Aryan Physicists. By contrast, Lysenkoism — an anti-genetic theory of heredity, insisting instead on the inheritance of acquired characters — became the official biology of the Soviet Union from 1948 to 1965, and genetics was criminalized. The chapter concludes by juxtaposing these with eugenics, a prominent hyperpoliticized science under democratic regimes.