Question
David Hume’s racist essay “Of National Characters,” which assigns a character to each European nation but considers them to be a different species from Black people, develops an example of this view. For 10 points each:
[10h] Voltaire’s Essay on the Manner and Spirit of Nations endorses what pseudoscientific view that different human races do not share a common ancestor? Louis Agassiz (“AG-uh-see”) argued that Genesis supported this view.
ANSWER: polygenism [or polygenesis]
[10e] Biblical arguments for polygenism were eclipsed by pseudoscientific ones after the publication of this 1859 book. This book’s sequel, The Descent of Man, directly refuted polygenism.
ANSWER: On the Origin of Species
[10m] This philosopher and geography professor wrote that humanity’s four races shared a common ancestor, but only white men could reason and therefore had dignity, in Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View.
ANSWER: Immanuel Kant
<FW, Philosophy (Early Modern)>
Data
Summary
| Tournament | Edition | Exact Match? | Heard | PPB | Easy % | Medium % | Hard % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 RMP Fest Online Mirror | 05/31/25 | N | 4 | 20.00 | 100% | 75% | 25% |
| 2025 RMP Fest Carleton Mirror | 07/13/25 | Y | 3 | 10.00 | 100% | 0% | 0% |
| 2025 RMP Fest CO Mirror | 08/10/25 | Y | 6 | 20.00 | 100% | 33% | 67% |