Vasconcelos’ essay about the social stages of a race and the final cosmic race was extremely interesting. The writing was dense and difficult to understand at times; however upon careful analysis, it presented some very interesting views and made some good points. While Vasconcelos’ writing seems crude and even radical in some areas, many of his arguments are carefully worded such that you would be a fool to even try disputing them. This quality of the text made it all the more interesting – no matter how bizarre and incorrect I may have found some of his ideas, I can’t deny that Vasconcelos deserves a huge round of applause for arguing his position effectively!
For instance, the idea that a race will create more beautiful (e.g. racially pure) future generations by avoiding interracial marriage is completely logical, and from Vasconcelos’ point of view, with beauty as the quality of utmost importance, it follows that interracial marriage would be frowned upon. Of course, thinking about it with free will as the most important factor, as many people today would, interracial marriage appears not to be an issue. You couldn’t use this to rebut Vasconcelos though, because he effectively confines his argument to his philosophy – in order to interpret his position on interracial marriage, you must first assume that beauty is paramount. Thus, Vasconcelos manages to keep the majority of his arguments indisputable, something I am fascinated by because it is a skill I think would be neat to have.
Furthermore, Vasconcelos is clearly against the liberal, rational philosophy spread by the enlightenment, yet he recognizes that many people believe in those ideologies and takes this into account when writing his essay. He repeatedly refers to scientific theories and discoveries to back up his arguments. He must certainly have a way with words if he can use science to argue the merits of a system that ignores rationale over feeling! Yet his arguments do not become illogical when he supports his theory with science – it just makes more sense! How intriguing!
For example, Vasconcelos introduces an interesting extension of Mendelianism and Darwinism – that higher order species (like humans) are capable of artificial selection, while lesser species are only capable of natural selection. He uses this concept to argue that humans (and not other lesser species) can attain racial beauty and the third stage of social development through Mendelianism – utilizing the concept that artificial selection via people choosing certain beautiful individuals to be with would cause desirable traits to be passed to new generations. Meanwhile, Darwin’s natural selection must be avoided since it is influenced by people’s vices due to human nature, and interracial marriage would therefore be likely, causing ugliness. In this way, Vasconcelos twists science to his purposes and effectively supports his thesis.
Despite his well-written piece, Vasconcelos’ essay does have flaws: some arguments fall through when he refuses to take reality into account. This works for most of the essay, which remains theoretical; however at the end when he asserts that Latin America (and eventually other races) will reach the revelation stage of social development, his ideas no longer make as much sense. Throughout the essay, Vasconcelos points out that humankind has flaws that prevent humans from ever reaching the third stage of development. Moreover, he mentions that these imperfections are human nature, and thus nothing can change or correct them, implying that it is literally impossible for humans to reach his proposed third social stage. This directly contradicts his hypothesis that Latin America will reach the stage of revelation. Another illogical argument is that people who are ugly will voluntarily not procreate, contributing to a process of “voluntary extinction” of the ugly. This is simply not realistic, no matter how utopian Vasconcelos is!
This essay was a truly fascinating snapshot into the various philosophical views of the time period.