Enlightenment race science was contradictory, not uniformly racist

Evidence

Such opinions, in themselves harmless, were advanced by the early anthropologists as starting points of their investigations. A typical instance is the naive hypothesis of Paul Broca, noted French anthropologist of the middle of the last century, who assumed that “the brain has something to do with race and the measured shape of the skull is the best way to get at the contents of the brain” (quoted after Jacques Barzun, op. cit., p. 162). It is obvious that this assertion, without the support of a conception of the nature of man, is simply ridiculous. As for the philologists of the early nineteenth century, whose concept of “Aryanism” has seduced almost every student of racism to count them among the propagandists or even inventors of race-thinking, they are as innocent as innocent can be. When they overstepped the limits of pure research it was because they wanted to include in the same cultural brotherhood as many nations as possible. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2243 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Early race science was naive speculation, not deliberate ideology — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2243; Enlightenment race theories spanned racist, neutral, and anti-racist positions; Early race scholars were often not deliberate racists (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment race theories spanned racist, neutral, and anti-racist positions #expands (0.90)
• Early race science was naive speculation, not deliberate ideology #qualifies (0.85) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2243
• Early race scholars were often not deliberate racists #corroborates (0.80)