Dutch industrialist Jacques Marken (1845-1906) coined of the term "social engineering" and "social engineer" in the 1890s, a calling aimed at improving what is amiss in the social world. |
“M. van Marken perceived that there was much amiss in the social world, which called for amendment. And he became the first avowed "Christian socialist" of his country. The harvest was, however, too great for one husbandman. So he pleaded for a new calling to be taken up by public-spirited men, a calling which ho christened "social engineering." There are some "social engineers" at work now, and they are reaping results.”
“It is the possible development of theory (e.g., kinetic theory or sociophysics) and practice (e.g., social engineering) that may be useful for men.”
“Galton’s first and most influential follower was Karl Pearson, a radical socialist utopian and brilliant statistician. Fascinated and frightened by the growing economic power of Germany, Pearson turned eugenics into a strands of jingoism. It was not the individual that must be eugenic—picking mates with good genes and minds—it was the nation.”
“I have heard people talk of the ‘scientific’ extermination of the Jews in Germany. There was nothing scientific about it.”— Richard Feynman (1963), The Meaning of it All: a Scientist Looks at Society (pg. 17)
“Carrel considered medicine to be the discipline best suited for leading the way to universal knowledge. The role of physicians would be to ‘guide’ the process of human regeneration by supplying society with ‘engineers of the body and soul’.”